Fr.  Bettex 


THE:::: 

FIRST 
PAGE 

OF   THE 

BIBLE 


The  German 
Literary  Board 

Burlington,  Iowa 


The  First  Page 
of  the  Bible. 


By  FR.  BETTEX. 


TRANSLATED   FROM  THE    SECOND  GERMAN  EDITION, 
WITH    THE    FORMER   TRANSI,ATION   COM- 
PARED  AND    REVISED   BY 

The  Rev.  F.  C.   Longaker,  A.  M. 


19  0  8 
BURLINGTON,  IOWA. 


o 


Copyright,  1903,  by 

R.     NEUMANN, 

In  Trust  for 

The  German  L,iterary  Board,  Burlington,  Iowa. 


THE   BEGINNING. 


"In  the  Beginning  God  Cr'eated  the  Heaven  and 
the  Earth." 

AS  the  individual,  so  the  human  family  is 
confronted  by  the  twofold  question: 
Whence  do  we  come  and  whither  do  we 
go?  But  God,  who  has  created  the  human 
heart  and  knows  all  its  desires,  has  given  us  the 
answer  in  his  Word.  The  first  book  of  Moses, 
called  Genesis,  tells  us  whence  we  come;  the  last 
book  of  the  Bible,  the  Revelation  of  St.  John, 
shows  us  whither  we  go.  It  is  true,  men  who 
have  considered  themselves  wise  above  that  which 
is  written,  have  tried  in  every  way  to  gainsay 
this  divine  answer;  and  a  false  reasoning  at  the 
present  day  proclaims  from  the  house-tops  that 
science  has  done  away  with  the  former  belief  con- 
cerning the  origin  of  man,  and  that  we  are  not 
created  by  God,  but  descended  from  the  monkey. 
But  these  so-called  "scientific  conclusions"  are 
nothing  but  misty  visions  and  unproved  conjec- 
tures of  men  who  rely  on  their  own  thoughts  and 
of  whom  the  saying  is  true:  "Professing  them- 
selves to  be  wise,  they  became  fools." 

These  self-styled  scientists  either  openly  ac- 
knowledge their  inability  to  account  for  man's 
origin,  or  they  frivolously  say  that  he  came  by 
mere  chance,  as  if  absolute  emptiness  had  of  a 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 


sudden  concluded  to  become  man.  As  to  his  des- 
tiny they  are  likewise  ignorant,  affirming  that 
death  is  eternal  night.  Thus  these  worldly  wise 
men  themselves  pronounce  upon  themselves  judg- 
ment of  "the  outer  darkness." 

In  this  respect  the  traditions  of  the  different 
nations  on  the  earth  show  a  surprising  harmony 
with  the  biblical  account.  Neither  in  northern 
Asia  nor  in  Africa,  do  we  find  the  belief — which 
for  the  heathen  would  be  entirely  natural — that 
man  has  gradually  developed  from  the  animal,  but 
on  the  contrary  the  belief  prevails  that  man  was 
created  good  and  happy  in  a  beautiful  land  of 
garden,  that  through  his  own  fault  or  temptation 
he  fell,  and  that  now  he  is  found  in  a  state  of  dis- 
tress. Nor  do  scarcely  any  of  the  pagan  religions 
teach  that  the  earth  is  gradually  developing  itself 
into  a  blissful  heaven,  but,  on  the  contrary,  that 
previous  to  this  there  will  be  a  final  fearful  catas- 
trophe, a  triumph  over  evil  and  a  general  judg- 
ment, which  will  be  followed  at  last  by  a  state  of 
happiness  and  bliss.  There  are  also  found  in 
those  traditions  of  the  nations  remarkable  ac- 
counts in  perfect  harmony  with  the  biblical  view 
of  the  creation.  Thus,  for  instance,  we  read  in 
one  of  the  oldest  sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos: 
"He  who  existed  from  the  beginning,  created  first 
the  water  by  a  movement  of  his  spirit,  on  which 
account  he  is  called,  'the  one  who  moves  upon  the 
waters.'"  (Genesis  1:2).  "He  whose  power  is 
incomprehensible,  when  he  had  created  the  uni- 
verse, exchanged  activity  for  rest."     (Gen.  2:3). 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 


"The  visible  world,  heaven  and  earth,  were  made 
in  six  periods.  At  first  Ormazd  (i.  e.,  the  god  of 
good)  created  the  light  between  heaven  and  earth, 
thereafter  the  water,  which  covered  the  whole 
earth;  then  the  earth  and  the  land  came  into  ex- 
istence. Further,  there  were  created  trees  of  all 
kinds ;  then  animals  came  into  existence ;  and  last 
of  all,  the  human  being  was  created,  good  and 
with  bright  and  uplifted  countenance;  but  the 
fallen  Ahriman  brought  great  darkness  into  the 
kingdom  of  light  and  spoiled  the  whole  creation." 

Furthermore  we  find  this  harmony  regarding 
the  deluge,  in  the  traditions  of  nearly  all  nations. 
It  is  remarkable  how  people,  living  in  widely  sep- 
arated parts  of  the  earth,  relate  exactly  the  same 
things  concerning  a  great  flood  which  covered 
every  mountain,  a  great  ship,  in  which  four  (or 
eight)  persons  saved  their  lives,  and  many  other 
circumstances  of  minor  import.  In  our  own  land 
Europeans  found  an  Indian  tribe,  who  considered 
the  wild  pigeon  a  sacred  bird  that  should  not  be 
killed.  Being  asked  the  reason,  they  answered 
that  this  was  the  bird  which  had  brought  a  willov/ 
leaf  into  the  ship  to  their  fathers  during  the  great 
flood.  A  willow-leaf  greatly  resembles  the  olive- 
leaf  in  form,  size  and  color.  Does  this  not  point 
clearly  to  a  common  tradition  and  descent  from 
Noah  and  his  sons? 

But  considering  the  beginnings  of  the  earth, 
how  grand  in  all  its  simplicity  is  not  the  first 
verse  in  the  Bible :  "In  the  beginning  God  created 
the  heaven  and  the  earth."    Beyond  this  no  hu- 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 


man  thought  has  ventured  and  never  will  venture 
in  all  eternity.  True,  hundreds  of  learned,  unbe- 
lieving men  have  made  efforts  to  attack  this  sen- 
tence, and  to  prove  that  there  is  no  need  of  a  God, 
and  that  the  "eternal  matter"  had  generated  all 
being  and  life  of  itself.  But  is  this  reasonable? 
If  dead  m.atter  had  created  its  own  life,  and  if  its 
atom  had  found  its  own  consciousness,  the  miracle 
would  certainly  be  greater  than  that  related  in 
the  Bible.  The  very  things  which  the  learned 
have  discovered  with  reference  to  the  beginnings 
of  our  earth  tend  to  prove,  that  what  we  call 
"life,"  as  we  find  it  in  plants,  in  animals  and  in 
men,  as  distinguished  from  stones  and  metals,  has 
not  existed  upon  the  earth  from  the  beginning. 
Whence  now  this  sudden  appearance  of  life? 
How  could  life  come  forth  from  dead  matter? 
Not  one  of  those  gentlemen  has  been  able  to  ex- 
plain this.  We,  on  the  other  hand,  know  because 
God  has  revealed  to  us  that  He  who  is  an  al- 
mighty, a  living  Being,  out  of  the  fullness  of  his 
infinite  life  has  caused  life  to  come  forth  upon 
this  earth.  .  Of  course  we  readily  admit  that  God 
is  Himself  an  inexplicable  wonder;  nevertheless, 
we  rejoice  in  knowing  that  He  is  an  incompre- 
hensible God,  because  a  God,  whom  we  could  un- 
derstand, would  be  no  longer  a  God  to  us.  Life 
from  a  living  God, — this  is  a  reasonable  thought, 
in  this  there  is  sense;  but  life  from  dead  matter 
is  unreasonable  and  absurd:  From  the  infinite, 
accordingly,  the  finite;  from  the  eternal,  the  tem- 
poral; from  the  invisible,  the  visible;   (cf.  Hebr. 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 


11 :3)  from  the  real  and  substantial,  the  transient 
and  changeable.  Now  we  understand  why  there 
exists  in  everything  finite  that  mighty  longing  for 
the  infinite,  the  striving  on  the  part  of  every  crea- 
ture for  what  is  above  us  and  beyond  us.  This 
longing  and  striving  is  nothing  else  but  what  we 
call  "life."  Everything  longs  for  its  source.  Do 
we  not  notice  how  everything  in  existence  longs 
for  the  infinite,  and  is  not  God  infinite?  Indeed, 
he  who  is  not  spiritually  blind  will  readily  per- 
ceive from  this  mighty  longing  in  his  heart  for 
light  and  fullness  of  life,  for  power  and  knowl- 
edge, that  he  has  not  had  his  origin  in  dead  mat- 
ter ;  else  he  would  not  long  for  life,  but  for  death. 

"In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven 
and  the  earth."  In  this  the  very  first  line,  the 
Bible  makes  clear  to  us  the  position  which  we 
should  occupy;  and  as  an  able  writer  indicates  in 
the  beginning  the  main  ideas  of  the  subject  he 
wishes  to  bring  before  his  readers,  so  likewise 
does  God  in  his  Word. 

These  introductory  words  tell  us  the  subject 
to  be  discussed  throughout  the  Bible,  the  things 
above  us  and  the  things  beneath  us,  that  which  is 
heavenly  and  that  which  is  earthly.  These  two 
ideas,  "heaven  and  earth,"  form  the  center  around 
which,  so  to  speak,  the  whole  Bible  revolves.  We 
.are  shown  how  these  two  were  at  first  in  perfect 
harmony  and  then  estranged  by  sin;  how  God 
subsequently,  in  the  course  of  thousands  of  years, 
made  preparations  for  uniting  them  again;  how 
in  Jesus  Christ  they  were  again  brought  together ; 


8  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

and  how — as  the  last  page  of  the  Bible  proves — 
the  whole  earth  will  at  last  be  at  one  with  heaven, 
when  the  new  Jerusalem  shall  have  descended 
upon  it,  in  order  that  God  may  be  all  and  in  all. 
And  not  only  do  we  find  this  difference  between 
the  heavenly  and  the  earthly  in  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, but  also  in  nature  itself.  These  are,  as  it 
were,  the  two  elements  upon  which  all  life  upon 
earth  depends.  Thus  it  is  with  man :  his  head,  the 
seat  of  his  thoughts,  points  upwards,  while  the 
other  half  of  his  body  serves  earthly,  lower  pur- 
poses. And  does  not  the  difference  between  man 
and  beast  likewise  rest  upon  this  "above  and  be- 
low?" Does  not  the  entire  man  in  his  erect  form 
point  upwards,  only  touching  the  ground  with  his 
feet,  while  as  the  beast  descends  in  the  scale  of 
creation,  its  head  is  carried  nearer  and  nearer  the 
ground.  Do  not  the  plants  and  the  trees  with 
their  trunks  and  foliage  point  upwards,  while  the 
roots  sink  deep  into  the  ground? 

"In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven 
and  the  earth" — like  a  granite  rock  this  majestic 
sentence  stands  simple  and  great,  in  the  beginning 
of  the  Bible  and  of  known  history.  Thus  far  the 
triune  God  was  alone,  dwelling  in  unapproachable 
light;  but  henceforth  He  becomes  outwardly  ac- 
tive in  the  creation  and  preservation  of  the  world. 

And  now  this  foundation  having  been  laid, 
the  Scriptures  speak  more  particularly  of  the 
earth,  leaving  us  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the 
heavenly  glory  after  we  possess  it.  In  doing  so, 
because  it  has  to  deal  with  the  inhabitants  of  this 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 


earth,  it  speaks  to  us  in  an  earthly  manner,  hu- 
manly. It  says,  as  we  do,  that  the  sun  rises  and 
sets,  although,  properly  speaking,  the  sun  does  not 
"move,"  but  the  earth.  Did  not  God  in  His  Word 
descend  in  this  way  to  earthly  language  and  hu- 
man way  of  looking  at  things,  did  He  not  speak 
in  a  manner  human,  but  yet  absolutely  true  and 
divine,  his  language  would  be  so  elevated  that  not 
only  the  mind  of  the  untutored,  but  also  that  of 
the  most  learned,  the  most  renowned  astronomers, 
would  be  unable  to  follow  Him;  and  His  Word 
would  be  altogether  unintelligible. 


THE   EARTH. 


"A.nd  the  Earth  ivas  Without  Form,  and  Void; 
and  Darkness  was  Upon  the  Face  of  the  Deep; 
and  the  Spirit  of  God  Moved  Upon  the  Face  of 
the  Waters." 

THERE  is  a  remarkable  agreement  between 
these  words  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the 
results  of  careful  investigations  of  nature. 
Leading  astronomers  and  investigators  consider  it 
an  established  fact  that  the  earth  formerly  was  a 
red  fiery  ball,  sailing  about  in  space  and  enveloped 
by  dense  vapors.  These  vapors  in  the  course  of 
time  in  consequence  of  the  earth's  cooling  off  be- 
came for  the  greater  part  water,  but  enough  of 
them  remained  spread  over  the  earth  to  cause  im- 
penetrable darkness.  This  corresponds  exactly 
with  the  account  of  the  second  verse  in  the  Bible. 
Concerning  the  account  of  the  Spirit  of  God  mov- 
ing upon  the  face  of  the  waters,  the  learned  men 
have,  of  course,  nothing  to  say.  This  Spirit  of 
God,  to  be  sure,  is  not  to  be  discovered  by  the  in- 
vestigations or  the  calculations  of  the  scientists. 
But  what  is  this  spirit  doing?  Just  as  a  hen,  sit- 
ting upon  an  egg,  containing  dark  and  moist  mat- 
ter, hatching  for  a  long  time,  while  mysterious 
forces  within  the  egg  are  doing  their  work  in  the 
smallest  particles  arranging  themselves  in  a  won- 
derful manner  until  life  comes  forth  from  the  in- 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  JJ. 

closing  shell;  even  so  the  Spirit  of  God  moved 
upon  the  waters  and  He  infused  into  matter  the 
thousandfold  powers  in  nature  and  the  laws  of 
nature  which  now  have  their  play  upon  the  earth. 
In  Hebrew  the  verb  "to  move"  has  also  the  sense 
of  "to  brood,"  and  "waters"  is  equivalent  to 
"mighty,  seething,  rushing  streams."  In  these 
mysterious  forces  and  laws,  which  the  creative 
spirit  of  God  in  the  beginning  infused  into  that 
void  and  empty  matter,  are  to  be  found  all  the 
phenom.ena  which  we  observe  here  on  earth;  and 
even  the  human  body  is  a  wonderful  workshop  of 
unfathomable  transactions,  v/hich  take  place  in 
accordance  with  these  forces  and  laws.  For  just 
as  an  artist  or  architect,  who  intends  to  produce 
something  great,  walks  up  and  down  meditating 
in  his  mind  what  shape  and  relation,  size  and 
form  he  will  give  each  part  of  his  work,  and  as 
the  work  now  takes  shape  in  his  mind  and  stands 
before  him  complete,  even  before  anything  is  vis- 
ible to  the  eye,  so  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon 
the  waters  and  placed  measure  and  weight,  num- 
bers and  law  into  matter. 

It  is  remarkable,  however,  how  blind  fallen 
man  is,  not  only  to  that  which  is  divine,  but  also 
to  that  which  is  natural  and  near  to  him.  How 
many  millions  there  are  living  upon  this  earth: 
she  is  the  place  of  habitation,  out  of  her  they  re- 
ceive their  sustenance,  out  of  her  they  have  been 
formed  and  to  her  they  shall  again  return,  and 
yet  how  little  interest  do  most  of  them  manifest 
in  this  great  creation  of  God !    They  follow  their 


12  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

business  and  their  pleasure,  and  any  sort  of 
meaningless  pastime,  any  kind  of  useless  talk  and 
worthless  games  is  of  more  importance  to  them 
than  the  acquirement  of  knowledge  concerning 
the  great  deeds  and  thoughts  of  God.  They  learn 
in  the  common  schools  that  the  earth  resembles  a 
great  ball,  that  it  revolves  once  in  a  year  around 
the  sun,  and  that  it  is  25,000  miles  in  circumfer- 
ence; but  in  how  few  do  these  facts  arouse  any 
deeper  or  higher  thoughts !  But  a  Christian  ought 
also  in  this  to  strive  after  perfection,  in  order 
that  as  far  as  his  calling  gives  him  time  and  op- 
portunity he  may  find  enjoyment  in  meditating 
upon  God's  creation,  in  which  he  has  been  placed, 
"for  God  hath  showed  it  unto  them."  "For  the 
invisible  things  of  Him  from  the  creation  of  the 
world  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  tlie 
things  that  are  made,  even  His  eternal  power  and 
God-head."    (Rom.  1:20). 

And  how  enormously  great  is  this  dwelling 
place  for  man !  Of  a  ball  25,000  miles  in  circum- 
ference neither  you  nor  I  can  have  any  proper 
conception.  But  if  one  considers  the  great  oceans 
that  cover  the  earth's  surface,  oceans  upon  which 
ships  may  sail  for  weeks  and  m.onths,  day  and 
night,  without  seeing  anything  else  than  the  sky 
above  and  the  water  beneath ;  or  the  deserts  with 
burning  sand  much  vaster  than  the  whole  of  Ger- 
many, where  the  camel,  "the  ship  of  the  desert," 
can  likewise  travel  for  weeks,  without  reaching 
the  end ;  or  the  immense  grassy  plains  upon  which 
millions  of  animals  roam  about;  or  these  great 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  13 

stretches  of  country  about  the  north  and  south 
poles,  as  large  as  entire  Europe,  covered  with 
eternal  snow  and  ice;  and  in  addition  to  this 
those  large  countries  inhabited  by  men ;  the  moun- 
tain ranges  and  the  glaciers,  the  mighty  rivers 
which  flow  onward  like  broad  lakes,  I  say,  if  you 
think  about  all  this,  and  if  you  think  further  how 
this  entire  world  soars  through  space  having  no 
foundation  to  rest  on,  you  can  not  resist  the  im- 
pression that  this  earth  is  a  wonderful  work,  sus- 
tained by  a  master-hand. 

But  this  earth  not  only  soars,  but  it  untir- 
ingly whirls  in  a  prescribed  orbit  through  space. 
You  are  aware  that  an  express-train  goes  very 
fast;  you  are  aware  also  that  a  cannon-ball  goes 
much  faster,  so  fast  that  it  cannot  be  observed  by 
the  eye.  But  this  ball  upon  which  you  live  and  in 
whose  interior  a  mighty  fire  glows,  from  which 
we  are  separated  by  a  thin  solid  crust ;  this  earth 
with  all  its  seas  and  countries,  rivers  and  moun- 
tains, plains,  glaciers  and  icebergs,  flies  through 
immeasurable  space  fifty  times  faster  than  a  can- 
non ball,  and  carries  you  and  all  men  by  day  and 
by  night,  whether  they  work  or  whether  they  rest, 
and  so  gentle  and  so  regular  is  its  flight  that  you 
do  not  notice  it.  And  just  imagine  that  it  would 
be  possible  for  you  to  take  a  position  somewhere 
outside  of  this  earth  and  see  it  pass  by.  What  a 
sight  that  would  be!  At  first  you  would  see  the 
earth  in  the  distance  appearing  like  a  little  star, 
but  coming  nearer  it  would  grow  larger  and 
larger ;  soon  it  would  resemble  the  moon ;  not  long 


14  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

after  it  would  cover  half  the  sky,  and  would  be- 
fore your  astonished  gaze,  whirl  by  with  the 
greatest  velocity;  you  would  see  in  turn  sunshine 
and  dark  clouds,  the  storm-tossed  ocean  and  the 
level  plains,  high  mountains  covered  with  snow 
and  dark  forests,  great  cities  and  dreary  deserts, 
— all  this  would  in  a  fev/  minutes  pass  by  you  in 
furious  flight,  and  before  you  would  recover  from 
your  surprise  everything  would  be  gone;  you 
would  see  only  a  gigantic  shining  silvery  ball  in 
the  sky,  fast  disappearing  and  soon  looking  again 
like  a  little  star  in  the  far  depths  of  space,  whirled 
onward  by  the  breath  of  God.  Then  you  would 
have  seen  only  a  small  part  of  the  glory  of  the 
Creator,  the  earth,  which  God  made  in  the  begin- 
ning ;  for  thus  hundreds  of  other  earths  and  plan- 
ets, many  much  larger  than  ours,  fly  incessantly 
through  space,  some  surrounded  by  moons  and 
some  by  immense  rings  which  consist  of  solid  or 
liquid  matter.  Is  it  not  then  better  for  man,  in 
view  of  all  this,  to  rejoice  in  such  gorious  works 
of  God,  and  by  meditating  upon  them  to  admire 
and  worship  Him  with  the  feeling:  what  is  man 
that  thou  are  mindful  of  him? — than  again  and 
again  to  have  his  mind  centered  on  man  and  his 
small  achievements,  in  the  contemplation  of  which 
there  is  only  unrest  and  self-conceit,  while  in  be- 
holding the  works  of  God  the  soul  finds  peace  and 
exaltation. 

Thus  many,  many  years  ago  the  earth  flew 
through  space.  Although  yet  without  form  and 
void,  enveloped  in  darkness,  it  was  even  then  for 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  15 

the  "sons  of  God"  a  grand  sight,  as  it  is  written : 
''Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundations  of 
earth  ?  when  the  morning  stars  sang  together,  and 
all  the  sons  of  God  sang  for  joy?  Or  who  shut  up 
the  sea  with  doors  when  I  made  the  cloud  the  gar- 
ment thereof  and  thick  darkness  a  swaddling 
band  for  it?"  (Job  38-4,  7,  8,  9).  And  now  this 
earth,  having  changed  its  surface,  hastens  onward 
in  its  orbit  with  a  population  of  1,300  millions, 
with  innumerable  animals,  countless  birds  which 
fly  through  the  air,  and  millions  and  millions  of 
fish  that  swim  through  the  depths  of  the  sea.  This 
thought  likewise  ought  to  exalt  our  soul  and  make 
God  great  before  our  eyes,  who  watches  over  all 
these  creatures.  At  this  very  moment,  when  you 
read  this,  God  sees  into  your  heart  and  knows  ali 
your  thoughts,  likewise  the  thoughts  of  those, 
who,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  earth,  lie  in  their 
sleep,  likewise  those  of  the  wild  bush-mian  in 
South  Africa,  who  now  with  his  poisoned  arrow 
chases  the  antilope,  or  the  Eskimo,  who  in  his 
light  skiff  upon  the  stormy  sea  pursues  the  wal- 
rus. At  this  very  moment,  when  He  tries  your 
heart  and  reins.  He  knows  at  the  same  time  what 
everyone  of  those  four  hundred  millions  of  Chi- 
nese thinks,  and  He  knows  the  history  of  their 
lives  better  than  they  do  themselves.  At  this  mo- 
ment, when  you  read  this,  he  sees  upon  this  fast- 
moving  earth  all  the  sick  and  the  distressed,  the 
beggars  in  their  poverty  and  the  kings  in  their 
splendor  and  power,  the  great  number  of  those 
who  perish  in  battle,  the  criminal  who  prowls 


16 The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

about  in  the  darkness  of  night;  He  hears  every 
word,  song,  prayer,  curse,  laugh,  cry,  every  bitter 
complaint,  every  sigh  which  is  directed  to  Him 
and  every  useless  word  spoken;  He  writes  them 
all  in  His  book  for  the  day  of  judgment.  Fur- 
ther :  He  sees  the  lion  in  the  desert,  the  raven  in 
the  air,  every  little  bird  in  its  nest,  every  insect 
in  the  grass ;  there  is  not  a  little  fish  in  the  deep 
ocean  whose  path  is  hidden  from  Him,  not  a  leaf 
on  a  tree  upon  the  whole  earth  whose  shape  and 
size  He  does  not  know,  not  a  leaf  that  would  fall 
to  the  ground  without  His  will.  Yes,  while  He 
governs,  cares  for,  feeds  and  rules  this  entire 
world.  He  beholds  in  every  drop  of  water  those 
thousands  of  invisible  little  creatures,  scarcely 
visible  through  a  microscope,  and  gives  every  one 
of  them  life  and  food ;  for  in  Him  lives,  moves  and 
exists  everything.  Indeed,  if  you  look  at  things 
in  this  way,  then  He  becomes  mighty  and  great 
and  you  will  acknowledge  the  power  hidden  in  the 
word :  "The  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of 
the  waters." 


THE   LIGHT. 


"And  God  Said,  Let  There  Be  Light;  and  There 
Was  Light:' 

HAVE  you  never  considered  how  great  and 
magnificent,  how  wonderful  is  light,  that 
garment  of  God  (Ps.  104-21)  who  calls 
himself  "the  Father  of  lights,"  and  whose  dwell- 
ing is  in  unapproachable  light?  What  would  the 
world  be  without  light?  How  inconceivable,  un- 
known, incomprehensible  and  joyless.  How  dark, 
aimless  and  powerless  also  all  our  thought. 

But  what  is  light?  We  can  not  fully  explain 
it  and  are  less  able  to  comprehend  it  here  upon 
earth  than  the  rest  of  nature;  for  it  is  the  first 
and  highest  work  of  God's  creation.  But  so  much 
the  human  mind  may  know:  light  is  a  living 
power  proceeding  from  God,  which,  while  it  sur- 
rounds the  entire  universe,  keeps  the  smallest 
particles  of  bodies  and  matter  constantly  and 
powerfully  in  motion;  the  faster  the  motion,  the 
clearer  the  light.  A  body  altogether  motionless 
would  be  altogether  dark,  and  thus  one  can  say 
truthfully:  light  is  life,  motion;  and  darkness  is 
death.  There  is  no  complete  darkness  in  the  uni- 
verse, and  even  a  thousand  feet  deep  in  the  earth, 
where  our  eye,  blinded  by  daylight,  thinks  we  see 
only  darkest  night,  grows  the  crystal  and  many 
plants  of  inferior  nature;  and  in  the  deepest  val- 


18  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

leys  of  the  sea,  where  to  our  eye  not  the  least  ray 
of  light  penetrates,  living  creatures  move,  seizing 
their  prey  by  their  own  feeble  light.  And  when 
on  a  dark  night  man  thinks  the  world  lies  in 
darkness,  it  is  true  only  of  a  small  portion  of  the 
earth,  while  the  whole  universe  all  around  is  filled 
by  waves  of  light,  v/hich  fly  from  star  to  star, 
from  sun  to  sun.  Whether  the  outer  darkness  of 
which  Christ  speaks  will  be  absolute,  or  illumined 
by  the  red  lightnings  of  the  wrath  of  God,  we 
know  not.  But  the  rays  of  light  do  not  only  give 
the  bodies  form  and  shape,  color  and  visibleness, 
but  they  possess  still  other  characteristics;  and 
since  they  are  a  creation  of  our  Father  in  heaven, 
and  since  it  is  becoming  for  the  children  of  the 
house  to  investigate  and  admire  the  works  of  their 
father,  we  will  speak  about  them  a  little  further. 

Let  the  smallest  ray  of  light  pass  through  the 
eye  of  a  needle,  so  small  that  you  can  scarcely  see 
it  with  the  naked  eye,  and  you  will  have  a  world 
of  wonders  before  you.  Let,  for  instance,  this 
small  ray  of  light  fall  upon  a  drop  of  water 
through  a  good  microscope,  which  strengthens  the 
ray  of  light,  what  do  you  see  in  it?  A  whole 
world!  There  it  moves  and  lives  and  stirs,  pow- 
erful animals,  almost  frightful  to  look  at,  which 
move  about  quickly  sv/allowing  up  the  smaller 
creatures  to  right  and  left.  Slowly,  as  in  a  dream, 
others  move  backward  and  forward  in  neatly 
striped  little  houses  of  mountain  crystal,  and  still 
others  constantly  change  their  form,  become  sud- 
denly oblong  and  round,  stretch  out   their   arms 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  19 

and  draw  them  back  again,  never  resting,  and 
all  live  and  move  in  God,  know  nothing  of  you  and 
fulfill  missions  unknown  to  us.  But  the  whole 
picture,  sharply  and  accurately,  tenderly  and  deli- 
cately drawn,  with  all  its  lines  and  forms,  is 
painted  by  that  one  ray  of  light  upon  your  eye, 
which,  created  for  the  light,  is  itself  a  wonderful 
work  of  God. 

But  now  take  up,  with  a  great  telescope,  the 
light  which  comes  from  the  moon,  and  what  a 
difference!  Formerly  the  moon  appeared  to  you 
to  be  a  small  disk,  and  now?  Upon  a  vast  plain 
you  see  yonder  great  mountains,  many  thousand 
feet  high,  m.ighty  rocks  stretching  upward  tower- 
like, bold,  steep,  broken,  another  world  than  the 
earth.  Yonder  in  the  moon  there  reigns  eternal 
silence;  there  is  neither  air  nor  water.  Never 
does  the  wind  whistle  through  the  trees,  never  a 
brook  ripples,  never  a  wave  splashes,  never  do 
clouds  m.ove  along  the  dark  sky.  All  these  things 
are  shown  to  us  by  the  ray  of  light  coming  down 
from  the  moon. 

The  ray  of  light  also  produces  the  colors ;  not 
only  the  seven  primary  colors  of  the  rainbow,  but 
also  the  thousandfold  shadings  which  we  discern. 
Moreover  each  of  these  different  colors  has  its 
peculiar  warmth,  its  different  influence  over 
earthly  bodies.  Under  the  influence  of  one  ray  a 
plant  grows  more  rapidly,  under  an  other,  more 
slowly;  again  under  another  light  pictures  are 
produced,  such  as  you  see  in  photography.  Some 
have  a  quieting  influence  over  man,  as  has  been 


20  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

demonstrated  in  the  case  of  the  insane,  others 
produce  excitement,  as  one  may  see  even  in  the 
case  of  stupid  animals,  like  the  alligator,  which 
becomes  furious  at  red  light.  By  a  recent  discov- 
ery it  has  become  possible,  by  examining  a  ray  of 
light  to  determine  from  what  body  it  proceeds. 
If,  for  instance,  one  holds  against  the  smallest 
ray  of  light  a  prism  he  will  see  a  long,  beautiful 
colored  stripe,  and  in  it  there  are  drawn  hundreds 
of  small  black  and  glittering  colors  and  lines. 
These  lines  explain  of  what  matter  the  body  is 
composed  from  which  the  light  proceeds,  whether 
it  be  a  candle,  a  petroleum-lamp,  the  sun  or  a  dis- 
tant fixed  star.  And  thus  the  astronomer  at  the 
present  day  is  enabled  by  letting  the  smallest  ray 
of  light  from  a  star  which  you  can  scarcely  see 
twinkling  in  the  heavens,  successively  pass 
through  a  series  of  prisms,  to  read  in  it  whether 
upon  this  star  there  is  to  be  found  water,  iron, 
gold,  salt,  etc. ;  further,  whether  the  star  is  solid, 
liquid  or  gaseous,  whether  surrounded  by  a  great 
stratum  of  air,  or  whether  this  star  which  pur- 
sues its  course  through  the  universe  faster  than 
the  wind,  approaches  the  earth  or  recedes  from  it, 
and  with  what  velocity.  And  how  much  may  yet 
lie  hidden  in  the  writings  of  the  light,  some  of 
which  perhaps  we  may  be  enabled  to  discover, 
but  most  of  which  must  be  reserved  for  the  life 
to  come,  in  which  it  will  be  our  employment  to 
contemplate  the  wonders  of  God  with  clearer  eyes 
than  is  possible  here  upon  this  earth. 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  21 

How  wonderful,  too,  is  the  effect  of  this  light. 
The  light  of  the  sun  travels  a  distance  of  over 
ninety  millions  of  miles  from  the  sun  to  !his 
earth,  and  yet  is  strong  enough  to  make  vegeta- 
tion upon  this  earth  grow  and  blossom  and  give 
man  and  animal  strength,  while  creatures  born  in 
darkness,  even  where  there  is  sufficient  warmth, 
remain  pale  and  weak. 

But  one  thing  more:  Fifty  years  have  not 
yet  elapsed  since  a  man  in  France  by  the  name  of 
Daguerre,  at  the  instigation  of  his  own  family, 
was  forbidden  by  the  courts  to  make  known  his 
ideas,  because  he  was  determined  not  to  rest  until 
he  had  succeeded  in  taking  the  pictures  which  are 
found  in  the  ray  of  light  and  making  them  visible 
upon  a  plate  of  glass.  To  people  in  those  days 
this  idea  appeared  absurd.  To-day  every  child 
knows  that  from  every  lighted  object  photo- 
graphs, i.  e.,  light-pictures,  may  be  produced ;  that 
is,  the  light  picture  which  proceeds  from  the  ob- 
ject may  be  made  visible.  This  proves  that  light- 
pictures  from  all  objects,  invisible  to  us,  fly 
through  space.  Of  course,  the  ray  of  light,  though 
fast  moving,  needs  yet  a  certain  amount  of  time 
in  order  to  go  from  one  place  to  another ;  for  in- 
stance, eight  minutes  from  the  sun  to  the  earth, 
thirty  years  from  the  polar  star  to  us.  Let  us 
consider  the  latter  example.  The  light  which  pro- 
ceeds from  this  star,  with  the  picture  of  the  star 
that  is  contained  therein  started  from  that  star 
thirty  years  ago  and  tells  us,  therefore,  how  the 
star  did  shine  thirty  years  ago,  but  not  how  it 


22  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

shines  at  present.  Just  as  if  you  had  received  a 
letter  from  an  acquaintance  in  China  who  lefc 
there  six  months  ago.  You  can  see  from  the  let- 
ter that  at  that  time  he  was  well  and  hearty,  and 
that  he  was  engaged  in  a  certain  line  of  business, 
but  how  he  is  at  the  present  moment  and  v/hat  he 
does,  you  do  not  know;  he  may  have  taken  sick 
since,  or  even  died.  Thus  it  is  with  the  polar  star. 
We  do  not  really  see  the  star  itself,  but  only  its 
picture  as  it  started  from  the  star  thirty  years 
ago.  And  if  the  star  had  been  extinguished  ten 
years  ago,  we  would  still  see  it  shine,  and  would 
continue  to  see  it  for  twenty  years ;  and  not  until 
the  expiration  of  this  tim^e  would  it  disappear  from 
viev/.  Another  star  in  the  constellation  of  Pleia- 
des (Job  9:9;  Amos  5:8)  is  so  far  distant  from. 
us  that  its  light  needs  five  hundred  years  to  reach 
us.  Had  it  disappeared  at  the  time  of  Luther's 
birth,  we  would  still  see  it.  From  this  we  may 
judge  that  we  do  not  see  the  stars  as  they  are,  but 
as  they  were;  the  sky  does  not  show  us  the  pres- 
ent, but  the  past. 

But  now  imagine  the  case  reversed  and  some 
one  at  present  looking  down  from  that  distant 
star  upon  the  earth.  If  the  light  of  that  star  con- 
sumes five  hundred  years  in  reaching  our  earth, 
the  light  from  the  earth  to  that  star  would  need 
exactly  the  same  amount  of  time;  the  inhabitant 
of  that  star  would  see  the  earth  exactly  as  it  was 
five  hundred  years  ago ;  and  if  he  had  an  accurate 
telescope  or  a  very  sharp  eye,  he  could  to-day  ob- 
serve very  carefully  what   happened   upon   our 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  23 

earth  during  the  month  of  January,  1408.  Con- 
sidering this  matter  further  you  will  see  that  the 
universe  is  filled  with  pictures  of  all  events  which 
continually  take  place,  that  it  is  a  ''book  of  light," 
containing  "light-writings"  or  photographs  of 
everything  that  takes  place.  Of  course  man  can- 
not read  these  writings ;  whether  there  are  beings 
upon  many  of  these  mighty  luminaries  which  we 
see  twinkling  in  the  sky,  who  perhaps  are  able  to 
read  them  with  immortal  eyes,  we  do  not  know. 
But  it  is  certain  that  God  does  it  himself,  for  He 
who  made  the  eye  should  He  not  see?  And  this 
may  assist  us  in  our  understanding  of  how  in  God 
the  past  and  the  present  are  one  and  the  same. 

And  all  these  wonders,  and  who  knows  how 
many  others,  are  yet  hidden  to  us  in  the  ray  of 
light,  have  been  brought  about  by  the  one  word  of 
creation,  "Let  there  be  light!"  Indeed,  a  great,  a 
wonderful  God !  And  what  an  immense  m.eaning 
that  pure  light  has,  of  which  our  light  is  only  a 
small  part  and  a  weak  reflection,  is  witnessed  on 
every  page  of  the  Word  of  God,  which  says :  "God 
is  light  and  lives  in  an  unapproachable  light  and 
in  Him  there  is  no  darkness."  And  us,  His  chil- 
dren, He  calls  to  light,  for  in  the  light  there  is  all 
knowledge,  in  darkness  all  ignorance;  and,  as  the 
transient  sun-light  shows  us  every  day  in  nature, 
in  the  light  there  is  life,  in  darkness  only  death. 
But  to  us  the  promise  is  given  that  one  day  we 
shall  dwell  in  the  light  where  there  is  no  darkness ; 
yes,  that  we  shall  shine  in  our  risen  bodies  like  the 
sun  in  our  Father's  kingdom.    What  miracles  of 


24  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

light  will  there  float  around  us  and  rise  within 
us !  What  an  incentive  it  should  be  for  us  here  in 
this  world,  often  so  dark,  to  walk  as  the  children 
of  light ! 

Should  it  be  asked:  "How  is  this?  Light  al- 
ready in  the  beginning,  and  the  sun  not  created 
until  the  fourth  day?"  And,  pray,  why  not? 
Light  and  the  sun  are  not  one  and  the  same.  Who 
has  not  read  of  the  magnificent  Auroraborealis  ? 
So  also  Comets  shine  by  their  own  light;  and  as- 
tronomers know  of  gigantic  stretches  of  light- 
giving  nebulous  matter  in  the  heavens,  hundreds 
of  millions  larger  in  size  than  our  own  earth,  as, 
for  example,  the  stars  of  Orion.  There  are  now 
many  extinct  suns,  and  many  others  which  are  in- 
visible to  us,  so  that  light  without  our  own  sun  is 
clearly  possible.  And  should  God  will,  it  is  pos- 
sible for  Him  to  fill  the  whole  universe  with  an 
atm.osphere  or  "ether"  of  the  brightest  light. 

When  now  we  read  further,  "And  God  called 
the  light  day,  and  the  darkness  He  called  night," 
God  clearly  indicates  what  He  wants  us  to  under- 
stand by  day  and  night,  and  what  in  the  account 
of  the  creation  "day"  and  "night"  especially 
mean,  not  days  and  nights  according  to  our  reck- 
oning of  twelve  hours'  time — in  the  first  days  of 
creation  there  was  as  yet  no  sun — but  alternating 
periods  of  light  and  darkness,  without  anything 
being  said  as  to  the  duration  of  the  same,  as  as- 
tronomers now  note  such  periods  in  the  change- 
able stars.  We  are  here  also  reminded  of  the  say- 
ing: "One  day  with  the  Lord  is  as   a   thousand 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  25 

years,  and  a  thousand  years  as  one  day;"  like- 
wise, the  expression  "day  of  the  Lord,"  used  to  de- 
scribe the  periods  of  the  final  judgment,  suggest 
that  in  biblical  language  the  word  "day"  has  a  far 
wider  meaning  than  that  given  to  it  in  just  ordi- 
nary human  speech.  Speaking,  therefore,  of  the 
days  of  creation,  we  have  to  understand,  accord- 
ing to  the  wording  and  sense  of  the  Scripture, 
epochs  of  light,  as  to  the  duration  of  which  the 
Bible 'is  silent,  but  which  might  have  been  thou- 
sands of  years  in  extent.  They  were  great  epochs 
and  mighty  developments  of  light,  followed  again 
by  seasons  of  darkness  and  cessation. 


THE   SKY. 

"And  God  Said,  'Let  There  Be  a  Firmament  in  the 
Midst  of  the  Waters,  and  Let  it  Divide  the  Wa- 
ters.' And  God  Made  the  Firmament,  and  Di- 
vided the  Walters  which  ivere  Under  the  Firma- 
ment from  the  Waters  which  were  Above  the 
Firmament,  and  it  was  So.  And  God  Called  the 
Fir^nament  Heaven.  And  the  Evening  and  the 
Moryiing  ivere  the  Second  Day." 

HAT  kind  of  heaven  is  this,  the  creation 
of  which  is  here  related?  Evidently 
not  the  one  which  is  inhabited  by 
God  and  the  angels,  and  of  which  is  is  said: 
"Behold,  the  heaven  and  heaven  of  heavens 
cannot  contain  thee."  (The  Hebrew  word  is 
"rakiah" — that  which  is  stretched  out,  firma- 
ment. In  French  "etendue.")  But  rather  we 
have  here  an  account  of  the  creation  of  the 
atmosphere  above  the  earth,  which  God  also 
called  heaven,  and  which,  therefore,  is  called  by 
this  name  in  all  the  different  languages  of  the 
earth,  because  it  is  to  be  a  constant  sign  before 
the  eyes  of  man,  not  only  of  the  earth  beneath 
him,  but  also  of  a  clear,  immeasurable  world 
above  him.  In  view  of  this,  many  a  one  is  per- 
haps inclined  to  think  that  it  is  self-evident  that 
something  must  be  above  us;  or  he  may  think, 
perhaps,  that  this  so-called  heaven  is  nothing  else 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  27 

but  a  little  air,  which  does  not  deserve  to  be 
called  a  new  creation  of  God.  But  the  facts  are 
different.  Upon  the  moon,  for  instance,  this  "air 
heaven"  is  not  found ;  and  if  we  were  there,  we 
would  not,  even  on  a  clear  day,  see  above  us  a 
blue,  airy  sky,  but  only  endless  emptiness  and  pro- 
found darkness,  out  of  which  the  sun  and  the 
stars  would  shine  at  the  same  time  with  unbear- 
able, glaring  light.  That  we  have  a  blue  sky  above 
us,  therefore,  is  not  a  matter  of  chance.  Science, 
too,  is  in  harmony  with  the  Bible  when  it  says: 
It  is  to  be  positively  accepted,  that  after  the  earth 
had  been  for  a  long  time  surrounded  by  an  extra- 
ordinarily high  layer  of  thick  smoke,  through 
which  no  ray  of  light  could  penetrate,  so  that  the 
surface  was  covered  by  complete  darkness,  finally, 
in  consequence  of  the  continued  cooling  off  of 
these  vapors,  much  heavy  matter,  which  hitherto 
had  filled  the  upper  space,  now  fell  to  the  earth; 
so  that  the  air  gradually  became  clearer,  almost 
similar  to  ours;  watery  vapor  could  arise  out  of 
this  and  form  into  clouds.  This  atmosphere  had 
to  be  there  before  animials  and  plants  could  exist, 
for  the  constituent  parts  of  the  atmosphere  at 
that  time  became  very  favorable  to  the  origin  of 
the  vegetable  kingdom. 

But  what  now  is  the  use  of  this  atmosphere 
or  "firmament,"  as  the  Bible  calls  it,  we  may  ask? 
In  the  first  place  it  is  to  separate  the  waters  above 
the  clouds,  from,  the  waters  below.  Were  it  not 
there  the  mass  of  water  which  floats  above  us 
would,  as  a  dense  impenetrable  fog,  hover  over  the 


28  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

face  of  the  earth  and  the  sea,  and  groping  about 
in  it  we  would  gain  a  knowledge  neither  of  the 
starry  heavens  nor  of  the  earth's  surface.  In- 
deed our  whole  intellectual  life  would  be  de- 
stroyed. In  this  connection  it  would  be  ever  moist 
and  cold,  the  ripening  of  the  grain  and  the  fruit 
would  be  impossible.  But  you  may  think  those 
few  clouds  above  hardly  worthy  of  being  called 
"waters  above,"  com.pared  to  the  immense  oceans. 
But  in  this  you  are  mistaken ;  and  were  you  to  live 
in  such  countries,  where  during  the  greater  part 
of  the  year  incessant  streams  fall  from  above,  you 
would  get  a  different  conception  of  the  immense 
mass  of  water  that  is  stored  up  in  the  sky.  We 
can  illustrate  this  in  another  way.  From  the  rain 
and  the  snow  which  fall  upon  the  earth  come,  as 
you  know,  the  little  brooks  which,  when  united, 
form  the  streams  and  rivers.  Have  you  ever  seen 
the  Rhine  near  the  city  of  Cologne?  No  doubt 
you  thought  it  a  mighty  river.  Still  there  are 
many  streams  upon  the  earth  compared  with 
which  the  Rhine  is  only  a  small  brook.  The  Ama- 
zon river  in  South  America,  sixty  miles  above  its 
mouth  is  so  broad  that  one  cannot  see  from  one 
shore  to  the  other,  and  it  appears  as  if  it  were  the 
sea,  while  at  places  its  depth  is  600  feet.  This 
gigantic  mass  of  water,  broad  and  deep  as  Lake 
Geneva,  Switzerland,  rolls  incessantly  toward  the 
ocean  and  enters  it  with  such  force  that  two  hun- 
dred miles  from  the  shore  the  mariner  finds  to  his 
astonishment  the  sea  containing  an  abundance  of 
fresh  water.    Other  streams  in  America,  Asia  and 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  29 

Africa  are  almost  as  large.  Now  imagine,  if  you 
can,  all  these  rivers  united  into  one,  and  you  will 
stand  astonished  before  this  immense  mass  of  wa- 
ter, which  has  emptied  itself  into  the  sea  for  thou- 
sands of  years.  Consider,  too,  that  all  this  water 
had  to  come  from  the  clouds,  and  that  it  would  not 
be  where  it  is  had  it  not  been  sent  down  "from  the 
waters  which  were  above  the  firmament."  And 
again,  these  waters  would  not  have  descended 
from  heaven  if  they  had  not  previously  ascended ; 
masses  of  water  like  those  contained  in  the 
mighty  Mississippi  and  Amazon  rivers  ascend  im- 
perceptibly, day  and  night,  to  the  sky.  How  is 
this  done?  Simply  this  way:  Under  the  infiu- 
ence  of  the  rays  of  the  sun  there  are  formed  on 
the  surface  of  the  water  little  bubbles,  like  soap- 
bubbles  filled  with  air,  but  so  small  that  they  can- 
not be  seen.  This  air,  warmed  by  the  sun,  ex- 
pands and  becomes  lighter  than  the  air  surround- 
ing it,  and  the  little  bubble,  like  a  balloon,  rises 
upward  and  forms  the  cloud,  a  single  one  of  which 
contains  a  hundred  thousand  buckets  of  water. 
Thus  God  works  great  things  by  the  simplest 
means.  He  might  have  placed  at  the  "four  cor- 
ners of  the  earth"  towering  steam  engines,  which 
with  a  deafening  noise  and  roar  might  have 
pumped  the  water  out  of  the  sea  and  sprinkled  it 
over  the  earth ;  men  would  certainly  have  admired 
such  a  contrivance;  but  he  accomplishes  it  noise- 
lessly and  in  a  much  more  perfect  way  by  means 
of  the  air,  so  that  every  minute  millions  of  buckets 
of  water  rise  into  the  air,  and  the  winds,  also  be- 


30  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible, 

longing  to  the  air,  sprinkle  it  over  the  earth;  we, 
therefore,  hardly  take  notice  of  it,  and  do  not 
think  much  about  it.  A  renowned  astronomer 
has  calculated  that  if  the  entire  population  of  the 
earth,  men,  v/omen  and  children,  were  to  stand  at 
the  sea  shore  dipping  with  buckets,  it  would  re- 
quire 70,000  years  of  diligent  work  to  take  out  as 
much  water  as  the  sun  draws  up  in  a  single  year 
without  trouble.  So  little  and  insignificant  is  the 
power  of  man  compared  to  the  quiet  workings  of 
God. 

And  these  waters  from  above,  these  clouds, 
are  a  peculiar  world  in  themselves.  Of  course, 
one  v/ho  lives  in  an  inland  town  scarcely  ever 
learns  to  know  them  in  their  grandeur  and  diver- 
sity; upon  the  great  ocean,  on  the  other  hand, 
where  they  have  their  special  birth-place,  they 
form  themselves  voluntarily  and  rise  towerlike  in 
great  masses.  There  the  mariner  can  easily  ob- 
serve their  different  formations,  of  which  there 
are  four  leading  types :  the  cumulus-cloud,  which 
you  may  often  see  during  the  summer  or  before  a 
thunder  storm  as  it  rises  upon  a  dark  back- 
ground like  a  powerful  snow-white  dome;  the 
stratus  cloud,  which  covers  the  entire  sky  in  long 
streaks  at  sun-down;  the  cirrus-cloud,  which  can 
be  seen  like  torn  up  pieces  of  wool  in  innumerable 
shapes.  It  is  found  very  high  in  the  air ;  and  bal- 
loonists  who  were  25,000  feet  high,  have  seen 
these  clouds  far  above  them.  Finally  the  nimbus- 
cloud  with  its  irregular  outlines.  But  he  who 
wishes  to  learn  the  grandeur  of  the  cloud-world 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  31 

must  go  up  in  a  balloon.  Thus  an  English  army 
officer,  who  undertook  such  a  balloon  ascension 
alone,  relates  how,  while  it  was  dark  and  rainy,  he 
left  the  earth;  soon  while  passing  through  the 
rain-couds  he  was  enveloped  by  vapor  and  fog,  but 
in  a  short  time  he  was  above  them;  and  now  he 
describes  enthusiastically  how  he  passed  through 
an  ocean  of  snow-white  flakes,  and  how  also  this 
was  soon  below  him  and  all  around  him,  like  a 
Mont  Blanc  and  a  Himalaya,  gigantic  masses  of 
clouds  formiing  themselves  in  the  deep,  blue  sky, 
quickly  changing  their  shape,  illumined  by  the 
sunlight.  And  in  this  new  and  grand  world,  he 
goes  on  to  say,  he  scarcely  dared  to  breathe  or  to 
m.ove,  for  there  was  a  peculiar,  solemn  and  per- 
fect stillness,  and  he  felt  as  though  he  were  alone 
with  his  God.  And  how  will  it  be  when  He,  whose 
coming  we  are  awaiting,  will  appear  with  His  an- 
gels and  all  the  saints  upon  the  clouds  oi  heaven ! 
But  this  firmament  created  by  God  does  not 
only  separate  the  waters,  above  and  below,  but 
also  serves  other  purposes.  That  we  need  the  air 
for  the  purpose  of  breathing,  we  know;  but  still 
more :  by  it  we  are  enabled  to  see.  Did  not  the  air 
reflect  the  rays  of  the  sun,  so  that  objects  were 
illumJned  from  all  sides,  we  would,  as  is  the  case 
on  the  moon,  see  of  all  objects  only  that  part  upon 
which  the  light  falls,  while  the  opposite  side 
would  be  enveloped  in  profound  darkness.  It  is 
the  air  which  causes  these  endless  variations  of 
light  and  shade,  and  instead  of  producing  a  glar- 
ing light,  which  would  blind  our  eyes  with  a  cor- 


32  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

responding  darkness,  it  produces  a  mild,  harmoni- 
ous picture  of  the  objects  on  the  earth's  surface. 
Still  another  great  and  important  service  is  ren- 
dered by  this  air-firmament  or  atmosphere:  it  is 
a  warm  cover,  which  protects  the  earth  and  all 
the  creatures  upon  it  from  freezing  to  death.  It 
is  true,  the  rays  of  the  sun  are  warm,  even  hot; 
but  if  there  were  no  air  they  could  only  warm 
that  side  of  an  object  upon  which  they  fall,  the 
opposite  side,  in  the  shade,  being  exposed  to  all 
the  cold  in  the  world,  which  is  estimated  to  be  a 
hundred  degrees  below  zero.  Thus  it  is  upon  the 
moon ;  and  it  would  be  so  likewise  upon  the  earth 
if  it  was  not  for  the  air;  on  one  side  we  should 
roast,  while  on  the  other  we  should  freeze,  and 
there  would  be  no  life  possible.  But  the  air  mod- 
erates and  checks  these  fiery  rays  of  light,  di- 
vides them,  and  while  the  atmosphere  itself  is 
warmed,  it  embraces  us  with  its  even  warm  layer 
of  air. 

These  are  some  of  the  wonders  of  this  great 
creation  of  God  on  the  second  day,  and  as  the 
light,  so  also  does  the  air  praise  His  greatness  and 
power.  But  we  who  believe  in  this  Almighty  Cea- 
ator  as  in  a  dear  father  in  Christ  Jesus,  say  con- 
fidently : 

Who  'points  the  clouds  their  course, 

Whom  winds  and  seas  obey; 
He   shall  direct   thy   wandering  feet; 

He   shall   prepare   thy  way. 


THE  SOLID  LAND  AND  THE  SEA. 


"And  Said,  'Let  the  Waters  Under  the  Heaven  be 
Gathered  Together  Unto  One  Place,  and  Let  the 
Dry  Land  Appear:  and  It  Was  So.  And  God 
Called  the  Dry  Land  Earth;  and  the  Gathering 
Together  of  the  Waters  Called  He  Seas;  and 
God  Saiv  that  it  was  Good. 

WHAT  do  we  learn  from  these  verses  ?  We 
learn  that  the  surface  of  the  earth  was, 
at  one  time,  level,  and  that  it  was 
evenly  covered  by  water,  and  that  at  a  later 
time  the  mountains  arose  and  the  bottom  of 
the  sea  lowered  itself.  And  what  does  natural 
science  teach?  It  agrees  with  the  teaching  of 
the  Bible  by  maintaining  that  the  mountains 
were  formed  and  the  main-land  arose  from  the 
depths  after  the  earth  had  formerly  been  en- 
tirely covered  by  water.  How  did  this  happen? 
Natural  scientists  say :  the  earth  was  at  one  time 
a  great,  glowing  ball  consisting  of  fiery,  liquid 
metal ;  one  may  see  even  to-day  that  the  rocks  and 
stones  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  are  nothing  but 
corroded  metals.  Even  the  clay  out  of  which  we 
make  our  brick  contains  an  enormous  amount  of  a 
certain  metal,  which  looks  almost  like  silver, 
though  much  lighter.  In  the  course  of  time  when 
the  earth  gradually  cooled  off,  there  naturally  ap- 


34  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

peared  upon  its  surface  a  crust.  Gradually  be- 
coming thicker,  it  contracted  and  formed  wrin- 
kles, just  like  a  scum  on  warm  milk,  when  it  be- 
comes cold;  and  these  wrinkles,  corresponding  in 
size  to  the  earth,  formed  the  first  hills  and  moun- 
tains. Therefore  the  Bible  does  not  say,  "and  God 
created  the  dry  land,"  but  "let  the  dry  land  ap- 
pear" (according  to  the  Hebrew.)  The  natural 
consequence  of  this  was  that  the  waters  gath- 
ered themselves  together  at  the  deep  places, 
whereupon  on  the  one  hand  the  sea  and  on  the 
other  the  dry  land  appeared.  Here  also  we  have, 
with  reference  to  an  imiportant  point  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  creation  of  the  earth,  perfect  agree- 
ment between  the  Bible  and  science.  But  all  these 
things  did  not  comie  to  pass,  as  the  atheists  think, 
by  themselves  alone,  but  through  God's  creative 
word;  and  had  He  not  spoken  the  words  of  that 
third  day,  the  earth  would  stand  yet  without  form 
and  void  and  the  mountains  would  not  have  ap- 
peared. The  Word  of  God  was  the  command  that 
all  powers  which  His  Spirit,  as  it  moved  upon  the 
waters,  had  placed  into  matter,  should  go  on 
working  according  to  His  preconceived  plan;  and 
that  the  earth  was  thus  to  take  a  step  further  in 
its  development.  To  be  sure  the  angels  and  the 
sons  of  God  in  heaven  heard  these  creative 
words;  but  had  we,  at  that  time,  as  sinful  men 
stood  upon  the  earth,  we  would  have  heard  just 
as  little  as  when  at  the  present  day  at  the  word 
and  command  of  God  a  thunder-storm  arises  or  an 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  35 

earthquake  carries  thousands  away.  The  carnally- 
blind  mind  would  also  in  those  days  have  seen 
nothing  in  those  creative  movements  but  natural 
developments  and  workings  of  nature's  powers, 
just  as  is  the  case  at  the  present  day  with  the 
learned  and  unlearned  who  know  not  God. 

And  indeed,  they  are  a  great  work  of  God, 
these  "mountains  of  the  Lord,"  as  the  Scriptures 
call  them,  because  they  make  known  in  a  special 
sense  His  might  and  glory.  We  can  scarcely  form 
a  correct  idea  as  to  the  greatness  of  a  single  hill 
or  mountain,  to  say  nothing  of  a  mountain  chain 
with  its  connections  of  millions  and  millions  of 
cubic  feet  of  earth,  rock  and  stone.  He  who  knows 
the  Alps  and,  after  great  exertions  for  many 
hours  in  climbing  one  of  the  giant  mountain 
peaks,  stands  on  the  top  beholding  the  earth  be- 
neath his  feet,  great  forests  appearing  like  little 
dark  spots,  rivers  resembling  silvery  threads — he 
may  in  some  measure  get  an  idea  of  what  a  moun- 
tain is.  A  well  known  English  writer,  Kingsley, 
said  at  one  time,  that  the  greatness  and  power  of 
God  first  took  possession  of  his  mind  when  he  re- 
solved to  have  a  little  hill  removed  on  his  estate. 
For  after  workmen  had  been  engaged  carting 
away  load  after  load  of  earth,  and  the  little  mole- 
hill would  not  disappear,  he  began  to  think  how 
many  mountain-ranges  tower  up  to  the  sky,  how 
the  Alps,  or  the  Himalayas,  or  the  Andes  stretch 
a  thousand  miles  along  the  seacoast,  and  to  see 
how  little  man  is  and  how  great  the  works  of  God 
are. 


36  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

But  what  a  spectacle  it  must  have  been  when 
the  mountains  first  appeared!  For  not  only  did 
the  earth's  surface  rise  and  fall  like  a  sea,  but  it 
also  burst  and  tore  asunder,  and  out  of  the  cracks 
thousands  of  volcanoes  poured  forth  an  im- 
mense mass  of  lava,  that  is,  melted  metal.  Even 
at  the  present  time  many  a  mountain  gives  evi- 
dence of  these  activities.  Undoubtedly,  they  have 
been  formed  out  of  melted  stone,  as  well  as  those 
five  hundred  volcanoes  still  active  and  thousands 
of  others  that  have  become  extinct.  Think,  for 
instance,  of  the  long  chain  of  the  Andes  with  its 
numerous  volcanoes.  This  mountain  chain  is 
nothing  but  the  scar,  so  to  speak,  of  a  great  rent, 
which  at  one  time  took  place  in  the  crust  of  the 
earth,  out  of  which  then,  like  the  juice  from  the 
ripe  fruit,  the  lava  streamed  forth,  forming  itself 
into  mountains.  It  is  therefore  not  merely  a  poet- 
ical way  of  speaking  when  we  read,  "The  hills 
melted  like  wax  at  the  presence  of  the  Lord." 
(Ps.  97:5).  This  formation  of  mountains  has, 
even  at  the  present  time,  by  no  means  reached  its 
end,  though  in  less  majestic  manner,  mountains 
still  rise  and  valleys  sink  down,  unto  the  place 
which  He  has  formed  for  them.  (Ps.  104:8). 
Thus  in  the  year  1707,  in  consequence  of  a  sub- 
terranean fire  in  the  Mediterranean  sea,  in  close 
proximity  to  the  island  of  Santorin,  another  isl- 
and was  formed,  forty  miles  in  length  and  rising 
forty  feet  above  the  sea.  Thus  numerous  islands 
in  the  Pacific  ocean  are  nothing  but  craters  of  old 
volcanoes  that  have  slowly  and  gradually  risen 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  37 

out  of  the  ocean.  In  Mexico,  on  the  29th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1743,  at  the  time  of  a  great  earthquake, 
while  the  surface  of  the  earth  moved  to  and  fro 
like  the  waving  sea,  one  might  have  seen  how,  in 
one  day,  with  a  fearful  noise  a  mountain  arose, 
which  covered  four  square  miles  and  reached  a 
height  of  1,600  feet,  while  round  about  flames 
came  out  of  the  earth.  This  mountain,  named 
Jorullo,  stands  to  this  day,  and  from  its  summit 
burning  lava  still  flows.  But  on  the  other  hand 
you  could  have  read  in  the  newspapers  of  several 
years  ago  how  mountains  disappear.  At  that  time 
an  island  near  Java  with  a  high  mountain  sank 
with  a  fearful  roar,  like  an  earthquake  into  the 
sea,  while  a  rain  of  ashes  darkened  the  sun  for 
three  days.  Now  if  the  appearance  or  disappear- 
ance of  a  relatively  small  mountain  is  accompa- 
nied with  such  grand  and  fearful  phenomena,  if 
it  is  possible  for  a  single  small  volcano  like  Ve- 
suvius to  send  its  ashes  over  into  Africa;  and  if 
another  volcano,  which  we  know,  shakes  the  earth 
a  hundred  miles  around  and  envelopes  the  country 
in  darkness — what  an  indescribable  and  grand 
phenomenon  must  it  have  been,  when  on  the  third 
day  upon  the  word  of  God  and  His  command  the 
entire  solid  land,  with  thousands  of  volcanoes, 
arose  out  of  the  depths,  and  when  whole  moun- 
tains and  mountain  ranges  "skipped  like  rams!" 
In  consequence  of  this  gigantic  struggle  between 
fire  and  water  how  the  earth  must  have  been  en- 
veloped in  thick  smoke  and  flames,  a  type  of  that 
day  on  which  it,  with  everything  upon  it,  shall  be 


38  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

consumed  by  fire.  Yes,  a  beautiful  and  grand 
creation  are  the  mountains  of  God,  and  therefore 
the  Psalmist  never  tires  in  praising  their  beauty 
and  grandeur.  And  even  God  himself  has  sancti- 
fied their  summits,  v/hich,  covered  with  a  mantle 
of  eternal  snow,  rise  boldly  and  loftily  into  the 
clear  sky  above  the  little  and  meaningless  doings 
of  human  life.  Upon  a  mountain  Abraham  was 
to  sacrifice  his  son;  upon  a  m.ountain,  the  majestic 
granite  summit  of  Sinai,  God  descended  as  He 
gave  to  the  people  His  laws;  upon  a  mountain 
Moses  was  privileged  to  die  and  to  be  buried  by 
God  himself;  upon  a  mountain  Elias  called  to- 
gether Israel  and  caused  fire  to  fall  down  from 
heaven;  upon  a  mountain  Christ  preached  His 
first  sermon,  prayed  when  He  was  alone,  was 
transfigured  before  His  disciples  and  also  ascend- 
ed into  heaven;  and  at  His  final  coming  His  feet 
will  stand  upon  Mount  Olivet  (Zech.  14:4).  And 
what  shall  be  the  mountains  of  eternity  in  Para- 
dise and  upon  the  new  earth — those  hills  to  which 
David  lifted  up  his  eyes  and  from  which  he  ob- 
tained help ! 

In  sharp  contrast  to  the  hills,  those  luminous 
heights  of  the  earth,  are  those  dark  mysterious 
depths  of  the  waters  which  once  covered  the 
whole  earth.  That  three-fourths  of  the  earth's 
surface,  which  has  been  appointed  as  man's 
dwelling  place,  should  be  covered  with  vast  wil- 
dernesses of  water,  is  already  a  great  miystery; 
for  it  is  certain  that  God  could  in  many  other 
ways  provide  a  sufficiency  of  water.    Quite  enig- 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 39 

matical  too  is  that  world  of  living  things  in  the 
great  seas.  "Yonder  is  the  sea,  great  and  wide, 
wherein  are  things  creeping  innumerable,  both 
small  and  great  beasts.  There  go  the  ships ;  there 
is  leviathan,  whom  Thou  hast  formed  to  play 
therein."  (Ps.  104:25,  16.)  And  deeper  still,  in 
icy  silence — for  thither  no  noises  reach;  in  eter- 
nal night — for  thither  no  light  penetrates,  live  for 
thousands  of  years  myriad  forms  of  beings,  of 
which  we  know  not  and  whose  purpose  we  cannot 
even  conjecture,  and  which  know  nothing  of  us 
nor  of  any  part  of  earthly  life.  A  great  devour- 
ing dominion  is  the  sea,  flowing  from  pole  to  pole 
around  the  continents  in  ceaseless  currents  like 
immeasurable  rivers.  In  the  days  of  the  flood  it 
swallowed  all  the  race,  together  with  all  vegetable 
and  animal  life,  as  completely  as  the  Red  Sea 
swallowed  Pharaoh  and  his  host,  and  as  annually 
scores  of  ships  and  their  crews  go  down  to  come 
up  no  more.  What  wonders  of  destruction,  what 
treasures  and  riches,  what  skeletons  of  life  may 
not  be  found  in  its  store  house  of  everlasting 
darkness. 

As  the  hills  symbolize  the  lifting  up  of  the 
soul  into  joy  and  light,  so  is  the  sea  a  type  of  the 
heart  in  the  depths  of  bitterness  and  strife,  as 
Jonah  says :  "The  waters  compassed  me  about, 
even  to  the  soul;  the  deep  was  round  about  me; 
the  weeds  were  wrapped  about  my  head."  (Jonah 
2:5.)  And  thus  must  Christ,  after  He  has  been 
transfigured  on  Tabor,  descend,  on  account  of  our 


40  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

sins,  into  the  depths  of  death  and  hell.  "For  as 
Jonah  was  three  days  and  three  nights  in  the 
belly  of  the  whale;  so  shall  the  Son  of  Man  be 
three  days  and  three  nights  in  the  heart  of  the 
earth."    (Matth.  12:40). 

But  in  that  day,  when  all  things  shall  be  re- 
vealed before  the  Great  White  Throne,  then  the 
sea  will  also  "give  up  its  dead."  Then  they  will 
come  forth,  those  millions  drowned  in  the  flood, 
Pharaoh  and  his  host,  as  well  as  that  innumerable 
multitude  which  since  his  day  sank  in  its  depths; 
they  will  come  to  the  light  with  their  bodies  and 
with  their  sins,  to  be  judged. 

But  on  that  unspeakable  blessed  earth,  made 
new  by  our  Lord's  revelation  and  power,  "there 
will  be  no  more  sea."  (Rev.  21:1).  Everywhere 
the  blessed  will  reign  in  bliss. 


VEGETATION. 


"And  God  Said:  'Let  the  Earth  Bring  Foy^th 
Grass,  the  Herb  Yielding  Seed,  and  the  Fruit 
Tree  Yielding  Fruit  After  His  Kind,  Whose 
Seed  is  in  Itself,  Upon  the  Earth:'  and  It  Was 
So.  And  the  Earth  Brought  Forth  Grass  and 
Herb  Yielding  Seed  After  His  Kind,  and  the 
Tree  Yielding  Fruit,  Whose  Seed  was  in  Itself, 
After  His  Kind:  and  God  Saiv  that  it  was 
Good.  And  the  Evening  and  the  Morning 
were  the  Third  Day." 

HOWEVER  great  the  miracle  in  creating 
the  light,  the  air  and  the  earth  were,  here 
we  have  still  something  greater,  namely, 
the  appearance  of  life,  the  miracle  of  all  miracles. 
Or  did  you  ever  think  of  what  a  wonderful  thing 
a  plant  really  is  ?  that  millions  of  lifeless  particles 
of  matter,  taken  from  the  earth,  are  forced  by  an 
unseen  power  to  unite  and  form  something  that 
has  life,  that  eats,  drinks  and  breathes — for  all 
this  is  characteristic  of  the  plant — it  grows,  be- 
comes old,  weak  and  finally  dies. 

Great  and  wonderful  are  these  numerous 
creations  of  God.  We  are  acquainted  with  about 
100,000  different  kinds  of  plants,  each  one  of 
which  has  numerous  varieties ;  but  we  are  not,  by 
far,  acquainted  with  all  the  vegetable  life,  neither 


42  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

of  the  desert  nor  the  tops  of  the  mountains,  and 
still  less  do  we  know  what  grows  at  the  bottom  of 
the  sea;  neither  do  we  know  of  the  thousands  of 
smaller  plants,  which  move  about  in  the  muddy, 
slimy  drops  of  water.  What  a  contrast  between 
the  great  and  the  small !  There  are  thousands  of 
little  plants  which  you  swallow  unnoticed  as  you 
drink  from  a  mossy  mountain  brook.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  are  those  giants  in  the  vegetable 
world  which  are  hundreds  of  years  old:  the  tall, 
slender  palm.,  as  it  is  found  in  the  Cordilleries  in 
South  America,  often  200  feet  high,  higher  than 
most  of  our  church  towers;  the  enormous  bread- 
tree  in  Western  Africa,  with  a  trunk  30  feet  in 
diameter,  on  which  a  French  traveler  (Adanson) 
counted  nearly  2,000  annual  rings.  This  tree, 
therefore,  must  have  begun  to  grow  in  the  days 
of  Christ.  Then  the  gigantic  Mammuth  tree 
(Wellingtonia),  of  which  there  can  be  found  in 
California  from  300  to  400  specimens,  with  a 
round,  smooth  trunk  as  high  as  the  tower  of  the 
cathedral  in  Stuttgart,  and  having  the  same  diam- 
eter. But  the  longest  or  tallest  plant  is  the  giant- 
sea-tang,  which  has  its  roots  in  the  bottom  of  the 
Atlantic  ocean  and  grows  a  thousand  feet  high, 
until  it  reaches  the  surface  of  the  water  and  the 
light  of  the  sun,  and  while  its  limbs  rock  upon  the 
waves  of  the  ocean,  down  deep  in  the  sea  it  forms 
mighty  forests,  in  which  the  greedy  shark,  the 
dolphin  and  a  legion  of  other  sea-animals  make 
their  home.  Not  less  astonishing  is  the  great  dif- 
ference in  the  soil  and  the  climate,  in  which  the 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 43 

plants  flourish.  In  the  hot  sands  of  the  Sahara, 
in  a  heat  that  will  kill  a  man  if  he  is  not  protected, 
the  date-palm  flourishes,  watered  by  subterranean 
springs,  for,  as  the  Arab  says,  it  must  have  its 
foot  in  the  water,  and  its  top  in  the  fire.  But  near 
the  north  pole,  where  there  is  a  prolonged  night, 
lasting  for  months  and  where  the  cold  reaches  50 
degrees  below  zero,  where  wine  and  even  whisky, 
which  was  brought  thither,  had  to  be  chopped  in 
pieces  with  an  axe,  where  the  ice  gets  as  hard  as 
steel,  and  steel  becomes  like  glass,  tiny  little 
plants  bid  defiance  to  the  long  polar  night  and  the 
fearful  cold.  And  if,  after  a  long  night,  the  pale 
sun  again  makes  its  appearance,  there  grov/  and 
blossom  modestly  the  tender  moss  and  pretty  little 
flowers  in  the  cracks  of  the  rocks  in  a  soil  only  a 
few  inches  deep,  and  watered  by  melted  snow. 
And  here  also  we  find  the  smallest  tree  on  the 
earth,  the  polar-willow,  only  hand-high,  the  stem 
as  thick  as  a  lead-pencil.  And  the  weather  beaten 
seam.en,  whose  calling  has  driven  them  to  this 
lonely  spot,  like  to  tell  how  they  enjoy  the  sight 
of  this  little  plant  which  even  am.idst  eternal  snow 
and  ice  tells  of  the  love  of  God. 

But  the  greatest  miracle  of  the  plant  is  its 
seed:  "Whose  seed  is  in  itself  upon  the  earth." 
Indeed,  a  great  miracle!  The  smallest  seed, 
which  you  can  hold  between  the  points  of  your 
fingers,  has  the  power  in  it  to  produce  a  perfect 
plant  with  roots,  stems,  leaves  and  blossoms  "af- 
ter its  kind."    This  plant  again  brings  forth  the 


44  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

same  seed  as  long  as  the  earth  stands.  What  this 
means,  let  us  show  by  a  few  examples.  From  one 
single  grain  of  the  poppy  a  plant  may  grow  which 
produces  30,000  seeds.  Let  each  grain  again  pro- 
duce the  same  and  you  will  have  in  the  second 
generation  900,000,000  poppy  plants.  Yes,  it  has 
been  calculated  that  if  every  grain  would  grow, 
within  five  years  the  earth  would  be  covered  with 
poppy  plants.  Professor  Gaussen,  of  Geneva,  has 
figured  out  that  if  a  grain  of  wheat  as  it  is  found 
in  Syria,  Palestine  and  Sicily,  would  each  time 
produce  a  hundred  grains  that  the  grains  coming 
forth  from  this  single  grain  in  the  course  of  eight 
years  would  suffice  to  feed  the  entire  inhabitants 
of  the  earth  a  whole  year.  Such  is  the  power  of 
growth  and  increase  which  God  on  the  third  day 
put  into  the  seeds  of  plants.  If  one  thinks  whal 
a  moving  power  it  requires  to  make  these  millions 
of  the  largest  and  smallest  plants  rise  from  the 
earth,  what  is  all  the  moving  power  of  our  ma- 
chines, whose  accomplishments  are  so  much  ad- 
mired, in  comparison  to  this?  Therefore,  if  per- 
chance a  summer  breeze  blows  a  little  winged 
seed  on  your  sleeve,  look  upon  it  reverently :  there 
is  hidden  in  it  a  power  of  God,  before  which  every 
power  of  man  dwindles  to  nothing.  And  if  you 
divide  a  grain  of  wheat  into  parts,  you  find  noth- 
ing in  it  but  a  little  flour  locked  up  in  small  trans- 
parent bags,  which  are  called  cells.  The  natural- 
ists know  exactly  the  materials  of  which  a  grain 
is  com.posed,  but  can  they  themselves  make  a  sin- 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  45 

gle  grain?  No.  Even  if  they  could  obtain  the 
exact  material  which  is  found  in  the  grain  and 
could  mix  it  in  exactly  the  same  proportion  as  it 
is  in  the  grain,  and  would  stir  and  shake  the 
whole  ever  so  much,  it  would  not  become  a  grain 
of  wheat,  nor  even  flour.  And  should  they  con- 
tinue to  expose  this  mixture  ever  so  long  to  the 
heat  and  light  of  the  sun,  nothing  would  grow 
from  it  and  it  would  not  become  a  plant.  Notice 
here  the  wonderful  secret  power  of  God,  which  is 
found  in  a  little  grain,  and  which  leaves  all  human 
knowledge  and  capability  far  behind. 

And  this  secret,  tender  little  soul  in  a  grain 
of  wheat,  which  you  cannot  discover  with  a  mi- 
croscope, has  apparently  a  remarkably  tenacious 
life.  For  many  months,  even  as  long  as  fifty 
years,  grains  of  wheat  have  lain  as  dead.  During 
the  same  period  of  time  millions  of  human  beings 
were  born  into  the  world  and  died.  In  a  shorter 
period  the  empires  of  Napoleon  and  Alexander 
were  founded  and  passed  away.  But  in  tTie  little 
grain  of  wheat  the  tender  life  was  completely  pre- 
served ;  for  when  it  was  planted,  there  grew  from 
it  a  new  and  strong  plant,  showing  no  signs  of  old 
age,  but  producing  large  and  full  ears.  Yes,  it  is 
said  that  in  certain  graves  of  Celts,  many  hun- 
dreds years  old,  wheat  was  found.  These  people 
believed  so  firmly  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
that  they  lent  without  hesitation  to  one  another 
on  the  written  promise  to  repay  principal  and  in- 
terest in  the  life  beyond,  (by  the  way  a  little  hu- 


46  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

miliating  to  Christians  of  to-day).  Among  these 
buried  promises  were  found  grains  of  wheat 
which  when  planted,  produced  as  good  wheat  as 
seed  of  to-day. 

And  the  purpose  of  vegetation?  Why  did 
God  create  the  plant-world?  Really  every  one 
knows  why,  but  passes  it  by  without  thought  or 
thanksgiving.  Vegetation,  in  its  myriad  forms,  is 
here  to  nourish  the  countless  living  beings  upon 
the  earth,  as  though  God  had  said:  Thou  shalt, 
quickened  by  the  sun,  prepare  from  rock  and 
earth  and  water  bread  for  my  household.  And  be- 
hold, unobserved  and  silently,  by  sun  ad  by  storm, 
plant  and  tree  produce  corn,  oil  and  wine,  delect- 
able fruits,  herbs  and  medicines,  and  all  such 
things  as  are  needed  to  sustain  life.  Even  the 
many  million  yards  of  cotton,  hemp  and  flax 
which  are  used  in  clothing  are  the  product  of  the 
plant- world.  Food  and  clothing  for  the  hundreds 
of  millions  of  living  beings  upon  earth,  this  is  the 
purpose  of  all  this  silent  plant-life. 

That  primitive  vegetable  kingdom  which  God 
created  on  the  third  day,  has  been  preserved  to 
us,  though  in  a  different  form,  up  to  the  present 
tim.e,  and  to  it  we  owe  our  warm  rooms  during  the 
winter.  In  the  lowest  and  oldest  strata  of  the 
earth  there  are  found  immense  quantities  of  trees, 
which  through  some  physical  process  have  been 
turned  into  coal;  often  there  may  still  be  seen 
the  trunks,  limbs,  leaves  and  fruit ;  yea,  by  means 
of  a  microscope  even  the  smallest  wooden  cells  can 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  47 

be  detected.  This  immense  mass  of  vegetation, 
among  which  there  is  not  to  be  found  a  single 
bone  of  a  quadruped  or  of  a  man  (a  proof  that 
these,  as  the  Bible  relates,  were  not  yet  created), 
is  our  coal.  It  is  well  known  that  coal  is  found 
heaped  up  in  different  parts  of  the  earth,  often  in 
layers  forty  feet  in  thickness.  We  may  know  how 
enormous  these  quantities  are  from  the  fact  that 
in  England  alone  sixty  million  tons  are  dug  annu- 
ally. It  has  been  calculated  that  England  alone 
would  have  enough  coal  for  five  hundred  years  to 
come.  In  North  America,  in  China  and  in  Aus- 
tralia, where  coal  has  been  burned  already  for 
two  thousand  years,  there  are  yet  stored  up  enor- 
mous quantities.  And  this  immense  amount  of 
fuel  which  lies  buried  beneath  mud,  sand  and  lay- 
ers of  rock,  is  but  the  remains  of  that  vegetation 
which  God  created  on  the  third  day,  and  which 
by  means  of  internal  heat  in  the  earth  has  been 
slowly  converted  into  coal. 

The  wind  roared  and  whistled  through  these 
immense  forests  of  gigantic  trees,  which  at  that 
time  covered  those  portions  of  the  earth  that  had 
scarcely  arisen  out  of  the  water.  But  no  animal 
roam.ed  through  these  forests,  no  birds  sang  in  the 
trees,  and  not  even  an  ant  or  a  catapiller  crawled 
upon  the  limbs;  everything  was  quiet  upon  the 
earth.  Not  even  the  sun  shone  upon  them.  Ig- 
norant scoffers — for  ignorance  and  mockery  gen- 
erally go  together — have  frequently  laughed  at 
the  idea  that  vegetation,  according  to  Bible  ac- 


48  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

counts,  should  have  preceded  the  appearance  of 
the  sun,  because  it  says  that  vegetation  was  crea- 
ted on  the  third  and  the  sun  on  the  fourth  day, 
and  every  child  knew  that  without  sun-light  no 
plant  could  grow.  A  cheap  way  of  scoffing!  As 
if  Moses  had  not  known  this.  And  how?  Is  it 
not  possible  that  the  earth  may  have  had  in  those 
primitive  times  a  different  light  from  the  light  of 
the  sun?  Indeed,  certain  facts  clearly  indicate 
this.  For  instance,  we  discover  in  coal,  whether 
it  is  dug  in  hot  or  cold  regions  of  the  earth,  ex- 
actly the  same  plants,  the  gigantic  fern  as  high  as 
a  tree  and  the  palm-tree,  which  at  the  present  day 
only  grows  in  hot  and  moist  countries.  From  this 
it  is  clear  that  at  that  time  light  and  heat  were 
distributed  over  the  earth  in  an  even  measure,  or, 
in  other  words,  as  is  more  definitely  affirmed  by 
the  great  botanist  Descandolles,  the  vegetation 
which  now  has  become  fossilized,  at  that  time  had 
different  light  from  our  sun-light.  We  must 
therefore  imagine  the  earth  to  have  been  envel- 
oped in  a  mild  light  and  at  the  same  time  heated 
from  within. 

Moreover  the  discovery  of  a  manifold  animal 
life  in  the  ice-cold  depths  of  the  sea,  whither  no 
ray  of  light  penetrates,  proves  that  organized  life 
can  exist  for  thousands  of  years  without  sun- 
light and  warmth.  Thus,  here  also  the  latest  dis- 
coveries of  science  confirm  the  Bible,  and  show 
how  the  Omnipotence  of  God  far  transcends  fhe 
vain  imagination  of  man. 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  49 

If  you  hold  a  piece  of  coal  in  your  hand,  re- 
member that  you  have  a  piece  of  a  tree,  which  at 
one  time  grew  upon  the  earth,  when  neither  sun 
nor  moon  shone,  when  there  were  neither  earthly 
days,  seasons  nor  years,  when  no  animal  lived 
upon  the  earth  and  the  soul  of  Adam  rested  yet 
uncreated  in  the  depths  of  the  divinity.  And 
when  you  have  thus  looked  backward  upon  the 
thousands  of  years  that  are  gone,  take  also  a  look 
forward.  True,  the  earth  and  everything  upon  it 
will  pass  away ;  but  there  is  promised  to  us  a  new 
earth,  upon  which  vegetation  will  gloriously  grow 
and  blossom,  far  beyond  our  expectation;  where 
the  trees  of  life  will  bear  their  fruit  in  their  sea- 
son and  when  their  leaves  will  serve  for  the  heal- 
ing of  the  nations.    (Rev.  22 :3) . 


SUN,  MOON  AND  STARS. 


"And  God  Said,  'Let  There  Be  Lights  in  the  Firm- 
ament of  the  Heaven  to  Divide  the  Day  From 
the  Night;  and  Let  Them  be  for  Signs,  and  for 
Seasons,  and  for  Days  and  Years;  and  Let 
Them  be  for  Lights  in  the  Firmament  of  the 
Heaven  to  Give  Light  Upon  the  Earth;'  and  It 
Was  So.  And  God  Made  Two  Great  Lights; 
the  Greater  Light  to  Rule  the  Day,  and  the 
Lesser  Light  to  Rule  the  Night;  He  Made  the 
Stars  Also.  And  God  Set  Them  in  the  Firma- 
ment of  the  Heaven  to  Give  Light  Upon  the 
Earth.  And  to  Ride  Over  the  Day  and  Over 
the  Night,  and  to  Divide  the  Light  From  the 
Darkness;  and  God  Said  That  It  Was  Good. 
And  the  Evening  and  the  Morning  were  the 
Fourth  Day." 

WE  just  spoke  of  the  vegetable  kingdom 
and  what  remains  of  it  in  the  form  of 
coal,  and  as  it  existed  before  the  sun 
shone  upon  the  earth,  and  how  there  must  have 
been  at  that  time  a  different  light  from  the  one  at 
the  present  day,  which  enveloped  the  earth  with 
an  even  temperature.  Whence  this  light  came, 
can  not  now  be  explained,  and  in  this  case,  too, 
like  in  hundreds  of  others,  the  best  wisdom  must 
find  expression  in  the  humble  confession:   "We 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  51 

know  not."  But  so  much  we  do  know,  that,  after 
a  definite  period  of  time,  on  the  fourth  day  of 
creation,  for  the  first  time,  two  great  lights  ap- 
peared in  the  heavens,  one  of  these  ruled  the  day 
and  the  other  the  night,  and  these  were  to  serve 
as  regulators  of  time. 

It  is  to  be  noted  here  that  in  the  narrative 
of  the  creation  of  the  sun  and  moon  on  the  fourth 
day,  the  word  "barah"  (created)  is  not  used,  but 
"asah"  (set  in  order) .  The  native  material  of  the 
sun  was  long  before  at  hand,  but  not  arranged, 
made  into  the  sun,  until  the  fourth  day.  Thus  the 
German  Astronomer  Moldenhauer  writes:  "The 
earth  required  less  time  to  form  a  globe  than  the 
sun,  and  long  after  the  formation  of  the  earth  was 
the  great  mass  of  nebulous  light  formied  into  the 
sun-ball,  small  in  the  beginning,  but  dazzling  in 
light."  With  this  opinion,  viz.:  that  the  forma- 
tion of  the  earth  preceded  that  of  the  sun  by  mil- 
lions of  years,  the  most  renowned  scientists  and 
astronomers  fully  agree,  e.  g.,  Prof.  Dr.  Quenstedt, 
Astronomer  Flammarion,  Prof.  Faye,  and  Lord 
Kelvin,  the  latter  probably  the  most  renowned 
physicist  of  the  present  time.  Here  also,  then, 
scientific  research  confirms  the  Biblical  narrative, 
and  not,  as  scoffers  assert,  contradict  it. 

This  is  a  very  important  mission,  for  our  best 
clocks  and  other  time-regulators  would  not  be  suf- 
ficiently accurate  and  reliable  as  to  show  minutely 
the  exact  time  for  any  given  period;  only  the 
heavenly    bodies     are    reliable    time-regulators, 


52  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

which  never  gain  nor  lose,  not  even  a  minute  or 
second.  Without  them  there  would  soon  be  a 
fearful  confusion  in  the  regulation  of  time,  yes, 
without  them  and  without  the  established  division 
of  day  and  night,  month  and  years,  man  would 
never  have  entertained  the  idea  of  making  divi- 
sions of  time  at  all.  But  were  we  not  to  have  di- 
visions of  time,  an  orderly  human  existence  would 
be  inconceivable.  We  see  how  the  Scriptures 
from  the  very  beginning  during  the  tim.e  of  the 
law  and  the  prophets  to  the  Revelation  pay  much 
attention  to  time,  even  more  than  we  notice.  We 
refer  only  to  the  passages :  "But  when  the  fulness 
of  time  was  come";  "My  hour  is  not  yet  come." 
Also  Rev.  12:14;  10:6,  and  many  others. 

Therefore,  in  order  that  we  should  have  light 
and  a  division  of  the  time,  we  have  the  sun  and 
the  moon.  But  if  one  should  conclude  this  to  be 
their  only  purpose,  it  would  remind  one  of  a  beg- 
gar, to  whom  a  king  was  daily  giving  alms,  be- 
cause the  beggar  might  conclude  that  the  king  ex- 
isted only  for  that  purpose,  and  that  this  were  his 
only  mission.  No,  these  are  mighty  creations  of 
God,  which  do  not  merely  exist  for  our  sakes,  but 
also  for  His  glory  and  honor,  and  to  fulfill  other 
missions,  unknown  to  us.  Thus  the  sun  gives 
light  not  only  to  our  little  earth,  but  also  to  two 
hundred  other  planets,  of  which  the  majestic 
"Jupiter"  with  its  four  moons  is  1,400  times 
greater,  and  the  cloudy  "Saturn,"  with  eight 
moons,  700  times  greater  than  our  earth.     And 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  53 

not  only  does  the  sun  give  light  to  these  bodies, 
but  it  also  forces  them,  by  means  of  its  mighty 
power  of  attraction,  as  their  center,  to  revolve 
around  it  drawing  them  irresistibly  along  in  its 
flight  through  the  immense  starry  heavens.  More- 
over, the  fact  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  speak  from 
a  human  standpoint  when  they  refer  to  the  sun 
and  moon  as  being  the  two  main  lights  in  the 
heavens,  while  the  stars  are  mentioned  only  inci- 
dentally, is  natural  and  proper.  We  know  very 
well  from  reliable  observations  and  calculations 
that  the  moon  is  a  thousand  time  smaller  than  the 
fixed  stars,  which  we  see  shining  in  the  heavens, 
and  that  the  moon,  compared  to  the  sun,  being  a 
million  times  larger,  occupies  a  very  subordinate 
and  insignificant  position  in  the  solar  system. 
But  God  has  given  His  Word  to  the  entire  human 
race,  which  does  not  only  consist  of  a  few  thou- 
sands of  learned  and  educated  men,  but  of  the 
toiling  millions,  who  eat  their  bread  in  the  sweat 
of  their  brow,  who  understand  nothing  about  as- 
tronomy and  the  natural  sciences,  but  who  are  as 
near  to  the  paternal  heart  of  God,  if  not  nearer, 
than  many  a  great  philosopher.  And  if  God 
wishes  to  speak  to  all  these  His  children.  He 
speaks  to  them  in  a  very  simple  language,  so  that 
they  may  understand  it.  Consequently  the  accu- 
sation so  often  brought  against  the  Bible  of  not 
speaking  a  scientific  language,  is  exceedingly  ab- 
surd. If  the  Bible  were  to  speak  "scientifically," 
what  would  it  profit  these  millions? 


54  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

Planets,  suns  and  moons,  are  the  three  main 
kinds  of  heavenly  bodies  in  the  universe.  There 
is  not  one  sun  merely,  but  there  are  millions  of 
them,  which  may  be  seen  through  great  tele- 
scopes. These  suns  are  called  fixed  stars,  and  are 
just  as  large,  some  even  larger  than  our  sun  and 
just  as  bright  and  even  brighter.  Why  do  they 
appear  to  us  so  small?  Answer:  because  they  are 
so  far  away  from  us.  Our  earth  is  not  the  only 
planet  that  revolves  around  the  sun,  but  there  are 
over  two  hundred  other  "earths,"  some  greater, 
others  smaller  than  our  place  of  habitation,  but 
like  our  earth  having  air  and  water,  day  and  night 
and  seasons,  clouds  and  winds,  dry  land  and 
oceans,  mountains  and  valleys,  some  also  ice  and 
snow.  Whether  there  are  living  beings,  plants, 
animals  and  perhaps  creatures  of  a  higher  order, 
we  know  not,  and  will  very  likely  never  find  out 
while  upon  this  earth.  Our  moon  likewise  is  not 
the  only  moon  in  the  heavens;  those  other  earths 
and  planets  have  their  moons  also,  the  one  two, 
the  other  four,  still  others  six  and  eight,  so  that 
the  nights  there  must  be  wonderfully  bright.  And 
all  these  moons  are,  like  ours,  much  smaller  than 
the  earths  around  which  they  revolve.  Thus 
earths,  moons,  and  suns  are  in  reality  the  three 
main  species  of  heavenly  bodies  created  by  God. 

How  it  looks  upon  an  earth,  you  know  from 
experience.  But  let  us  see  how  it  looks  upon  a 
moon.  The  surface  of  the  moon  is  rigid,  desolate 
and  rocky,  strewn  over  with  high  steep  moun- 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  55 

tains,  not  interrupted  by  any  ocean  or  sea,  neither 
covered  by  forests.  The  height  of  these  mountains 
has  been  measured  with  the  instruments  of  as- 
tronomers; many  are  over  20,000  feet  high,  con- 
sequently higher  than  the  highest  mountains  of 
Europe.  Over  this  broken,  stony  country,  with 
grand  bold  outlines,  the  sun,  when  it  shines,  pours 
out  a  glaring  light.  Inasmuch  as  the  moon  has 
no  air  or  atmosphere,  just  as  God  created  it  on  the 
second  day,  the  sky  there  does  not  appear  to  be 
blue,  but  perfectly  black,  and  in  this  pitch  black 
sky  the  sun  shines  unbearably  bright,  not  only 
twelve  hours,  as  with  us,  but  incessantly  fourteen 
long  days,  and  pours  over  those  naked  rocks  a 
glowing  heat,  in  which  metals  would  melt.  Be- 
sides this  the  stars  shine  at  noonday  even  brighter 
than  upon  our  earth  at  night,  because  no  layer 
of  air  cools  and  obstructs  their  rays.  At  the  set- 
ting of  the  sun  after  this  long  "day,"  suddenly, 
without  twilight,  because  of  want  of  air,  black 
night  spreads  over  the  valleys,  whilst  the  sum- 
mits, for  some  hours,  are  yet  brightly  beaming 
with  light.  Just  then,  if  we  were  there,  we  would 
see  in  the  east,  instead  of  the  setting  sun,  the 
earth  rise  most  beautifully,  appearing  as  bright  as 
silver.  From  the  moon  the  earth  appears  fifteen 
times  larger  than  the  moon  appears  to  us  from  the 
earth.  The  continents,  oceans,  clouds,  even  the 
masses  of  ice  at  the  pole,  appear  as  bright  and 
dark  spots,  as  we  observe  such  also  upon  the 
moon.     There  are  no  changes  of  the  weather  or 


56  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

of  the  seasons  upon  the  moon.  During  all  these 
centuries  it  wanders  through  space  unchanged, 
rigid  and  lifeless.  Whether  it  was  inhabited  at 
any  time,  covered  with  vegetation,  or  whether  it 
ever  will  be,  we  know  not.  According  to  all  ap- 
pearances, the  precise  conditions  exist  upon  the 
other  moons;  for  instance,  upon  those  of  the 
planet  Jupiter.  The  sun  is  altogether  different. 
As  the  moon  is  the  kingdom  of  death,  the  sun  on 
the  other  hand  is  the  kingdom  of  life;  a  life,  a 
power,  far  beyond  our  comprehension.  The  sun 
is  over  a  million  times  larger  than  our  earth,  and 
when  it  appears  to  us  not  larger  than  the  moon  it 
is  because  its  distance  is  four  hundred  times 
greater.  This  gigantic  world  is  a  veritable  ocean 
of  fire,  of  glowing  melted  metal,  surrounded  by 
flaming  air,  thousands  of  miles  high.  The  heat 
which  exists  there  is  incomprehensibly  great  and 
does  not  only  measure  thousands  but  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  degrees,  or  how  could,  otherwise,  the 
sun,  at  such  a  distance,  give  life  to  the  entire  sur- 
face of  the  earth  and  all  its  inhabitants?  And  if 
God  were  to  throw  our  little  earth  into  that  fire, 
there  would  be  only  a  small  blaze,  and  the  earth 
would  disappear  with  everything  upon  it,  just  as 
if  a  little  ball  of  wax  would  fall  into  our  kitchen 
fire.  By  means  of  strong  telescopes  it  can  be  no- 
ticed from  our  earth  how  mighty  columns  of  fire 
burst  forth  from  the  interior  of  this  immense  ball. 
After  some  time  these  streams  fall  back  again 
into  that  ocean  of  fire,  and  there,  in  the  interior, 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  57 

form  mighty  whirlpools  which  appear   like   dark 
spots.    These  are  the  so-called  "sun  spots." 

The  stars,  too,  which  you  see  so  quietly  shin- 
ing in  the  heavens,  are  such  suns,  immense  worlds 
of  fire,  many  of  them  much  greater,  hotter  and 
brighter  than  our  sun.  Thus,  for  instance,  Sirius, 
the  dog-star,  the  brightest  in  the  heavens  among 
the  well  known  constellation  Canis  Major,  is  con- 
sidered to  possess  a  force  of  light  equal  to  5,000 
suns  like  ours.  Just  imagine  such  an  abundance 
of  light  in  our  sky !  Others  again  are  less  bright ; 
still  others  are  blue,  green,  or  purple.  How  won- 
derful must  such  an  illumination  appear  upon 
those  earths,  that  revolve  around  these  colored 
suns!  Then  there  are  the  so-called  changeable 
stars;  these  are  suns  whose  light  regularly  de- 
creases for  weeks  and  months  and  then  increases 
again  and  becomes  brighter.  Perhaps  the  reason 
for  this  is,  that  one  side  of  these  stars  is  covered 
with  dross,  so  whenever  at  their  regular  revolu- 
tion that  side  is  turned  toward  us,  it  appears 
dark.  Som.e  times  there  are  two,  three  or  four 
suns  grouped  together  constituting  a  "family  of 
suns,"  and  thus  blue,  green  and  golden  suns  fly 
around  each  other  in  a  wonderful  ever  changing 
course.  Upon  those  earths  or  planets  the  blue  and 
golden  days  take  turns  about  with  the  green  and 
the  purple,  and  nights,  too,  are  illuminated  by 
such  colored  m.oons.  Still  more :  sometimes  there 
are  several  "families  of  suns"  united  into  groups, 
and  the  astronomer  beholds  with  astonishment 
such  a  colored  group  of  suns  in  the  heavens,  guid- 


58  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

ed  by  a  great  white  sun,  which  serves,  so  to  speak, 
as  a  shepherd  and  leader.  Who  may  fathom  the 
wonder  which  God  has  created  upon  and  in  these 
worlds  ? 

But  also  in  this  wonderful  kingdom  of  light, 
the  earnest  of  Him  is  manifest,  who  is  a  consum- 
ing fire.  The  astronomers  have  observed  thirteen 
times  already  such  exceptionally  bright  stars 
which  having  suddenly  appeared,  have  after  a  few 
months  or  years  gradually  entirely  vanished. 
Certainly  no  one,  not  even  the  most  pronounced 
infidel,  can  resist  the  impression :  here  I  have  been 
an  eye-witness  from  a  great  distance  how  a  world 
has  perished  in  fire.  There  will  come  a  time  when 
the  inhabitants  of  other  heavenly  bodies,  if  we 
dare  speak  of  such,  will  see  how  a  little  star,  or 
sun  with  our  earth,  will  blaze  up,  and  after  a 
short  time  be  lost  in  darkness.  (2  Peter,  3:10). 
Moreover,  astronomers  have  noticed  seven  times 
already  how  in  dark  places  in  the  heavens  sud- 
denly new  light-spots,  new  stars,  have  appeared — 
no  doubt  new  creations  of  God. 

And  thus  we,  too,  look  for  a  new  earth  after 
this  earth,  now  shone  upon  by  sun  and  moon,  has 
disappeared.  The  sun  shall  be  no  more  thy  light 
by  day;  neither  for  brightness  shall  the  moon 
give  light  unto  thee,  but  the  Lord  shall  be  unto 
thee  an  everlasting  light,  and  thy  God  thy  glory. 
(Is.  60:19;  Rev.  21:23). 


FISH   AND   BIRDS. 


"And  God  Said,  Let  the  Waters  Bring  Forth 
Ahimdantly  the  Moving  Creature  That  Hath 
Life,  and  Fowl  That  May  Fly  Above  the  Earth 
in  the  Open  Firmament  of  Heaven.  And  God 
Created  Great  Whales,  and  Every  Living 
Creature  That  Moveth,  Which  the  Waters 
Brought  Forth  Abundantly,  After  Their  Kind, 
and  Every  Winged  Fowl  After  His  Kind;  and 
God  Satv  That  It  Was  Good.  And  God  Blessed 
Them,  Saying,  Be  Fruitful  and  Multiply,  and 
Fill  the  Waters  in  the  Seas,  and  Let  Fowl 
Midtiply  in  the  Earth.  And  the  Evening  and 
the  Morning  Were  the  Fifth  Day." 

AND  God  said."  Thus  the  divine  work  of 
creation  goes  on.  Hitherto  the  air  and 
the  sea  and  the  land  covered  with  un- 
bounded forests  had  been  desolate  and  quiet. 
And  again  there  came  another  night  of  creation, 
and  again  there  was  darkness  upon  the  earth  and 
the  sun  lost  its  brightness.  Again  new  mountain 
ranges  came  forth  out  of  the  earth  amidst  fearful 
crashes  and  noise,  accompanied  by  thick  columns 
of  smoke,  and  those  mighty  forests  which  had 
been  created  on  the  fourth  day  were  buried  be- 
neath sand,  mud  and  rock,  so  that,  according  to 
God's  will,  they  should  be  preserved  deep  under  the 
earth  in  order  that  men  in  the  twentieth  century 
might  bring  them  forth  as  fuel  for  the  purpose  of 


60  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

warming  their  houses  and  feed  their  machines, 
engines  and  steamers.  But  when  the  volcanoes 
ceased  their  roaring  and  the  new  mountains  that 
had  been  formed  of  melted  rock,  had  cooled  off, 
when  the  smoke  disappeared  and  the  sun  again 
shone  forth  brightly  and  lovely  on  the  fifth  day  of 
creation — then  there  came  forth  out  of  the  ground 
an  enormous  abundance  of  vegetation.  For  the 
Word  of  God  spoken  once  on  the  fourth  day  con- 
tinued to  retain  its  power  in  bringing  forth  vege- 
tation and  will  continue  the  same  as  long  as  the 
earth  remains.  But  not  only  this.  In  consequence 
of  the  Divine  Word  there  began  now  to  move  for 
the  first  time  in  the  air  and  in  the  seas  a  great 
variety  of  animal  life,  there  came  forth  fishes  and 
birds. 

It  has  been  a  matter  of  surprise  that  two  spe- 
cies of  animals,  apparently  so  different,  are  here 
in  a  manner  grouped  together  and  created  both  on 
the  same  day.  But  in  looking  at  the  matter  more 
closely,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  fish  and  birds 
really  go  together  and  that  both  differ  materially 
from  the  four-footed  anim.als.  Both  have  an  ^^g 
shaped  gradually  tapering  body,  this  being  best 
adapted  for  their  movement  in  the  air  and  in  the 
water.  They  do  not  walk,  but  move  by  means  of 
fins  and  wings.  In  addition  to  this  both  have  a 
fan-like  tail  which  serves  the  purpose  of  a  rudder, 
something  not  found  with  land  animals.  Further, 
both  are  covered  with  shingle-like  scales  or  feath- 
ers lying  one  upon  another.  These  give  forth  an 
oily  liquid  to  protect  them  against  wet  and  cold. 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  61 

Both  have  hollow  bones,  very  light  and  yet  strong, 
filled  with  air  instead  of  marrow,  and  both  are 
oviparous,  or  egglaying.  Neither  are  the  so-called 
little  blood  corpuscles  of  these  animals  round,  as 
is  the  case  with  the  four-footed  animals  and  man, 
but  oval  and  much  larger.  Finally  both  species  of 
animals  have  the  same  mysterious,  regularly  re- 
turning migration  instinct.  Like  the  migrating 
birds  in  the  fall,  too,  the  herring,  the  cod-fish 
and  others  in  the  depths  of  the  sea,  undertake 
their  annual  migration  to  regions  unknown.  In 
view  of  what  has  been  said,  one  may  justly  affirm : 
the  birds  are  the  fish  of  the  air  in  which  they 
swim,  and  the  fish  on  the  other  hand  are  the 
birds  of  the  water  in  which  they  fly.  Besides  it  is 
known  to  everybody  that  there  are  numerous  spe- 
cies of  birds,  the  so-called  divers,  which  can  swim 
better  upon  and  in  the  water  than  they  can  fly  in 
the  air ;  and  again,  that  there  are  the  so-called  fly- 
ing fish,  which  can  sustain  themselves  for  a  time 
in  the  air.  God  has  assigned  to  these  His  crea- 
tures a  beautiful  free  life.  It  has  become  prover- 
bial in  many  languages  how  pleasant  the  little  fish 
finds  it  in  the  water  and  how  free  the  bird  is  in 
the  air.  The  eagle  soars  majestically  for  hours 
around  the  mountain  summit,  looking  down  upon 
the  earth  beneath  him.,  as  he  sails  with  pleasure 
in  the  blue  sky.  At  the  south  pole,  where  the 
oceans  cover  an  area  many  times  larger  than  Eu- 
rope, the  real  king  of  the  air  is  the  strong  man- 
of-war-bird  (Ornith).  With  much  larger  wings 
than  the  eagle,  it  is  to  him  life  and  pleasure  to 


62  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible, 

spend  weeks  day  and  night  upon  the  ocean,  hun- 
dreds of  miles  distant  from  the  shore;  to  fight 
with  the  storm,  which  tosses  the  mastless  ships 
to  and  fro,  ever  and  anon  crying  to  God  in  a 
hoarse  voice,  that  He  might  send  him  his  prey  and 
food  in  time.  And  in  those  same  waters  the  much 
feared  cachalot  is  king  of  the  ocean.  As  large, 
yea,  even  larger  than  the  whale,  with  a  gigantic 
angular  head  and  frightful  teeth,  he  rises  at  times 
to  the  surface,  plays  with  ships  and  knocks 
against  them,  so  that  the  strongest  rafters  come 
apart  and  the  ship  with  everything  in  it  sinks  into 
the  depths  of  the  sea.  Then  again  he  dives  down 
into  the  ocean  and  traverses  with  great  force  his 
watery  kingdom,  a  ruler  before  whom  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  deep  fly  frightened  in  all  directions, 
and  even  the  voracious  shark,  this  tiger  of  the  sea, 
takes  timidly  to  flight.  Here  we  have  also  a  "king 
by  divine  right!" 

If  now  we  ask  ourselves  the  question  as  to 
whether  there  are  yet  found  in  the  interior  of  the 
earth  remains  of  those  creatures,  which  God  crea- 
ted on  the  fifth  day,  we  find  again  that  the  result 
harmonizes  completely  with  the  Bible  account. 
The  layers  of  the  earth  relate  to  us  very  clearly 
that  after  the  immense  creation  of  vegetation, 
whose  remains  we  yet  find  in  the  coal,  there  fol- 
lowed great  commotions  of  the  earth  and  that  all 
at  once  an  enormous  multitude  of  water  animals 
of  all  kinds  appeared  upon  the  earth,  or  more 
properly  speaking,  in  the  seas,  whose  remains  by 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  63 

the  millions  constitute  certain  layers  of  the  earth's 
crust;  for  instance,  the  slate,  whereof  we  have 
numerous  examples.  And  if  one  sees  how  in  a 
single  piece  of  slate  animals  of  all  kinds,  some- 
times hundreds  and  thousands,  are  crushed  to- 
gether, one  understands  the  word:  "So  is  this 
great  wide  sea,  wherein  are  things  creeping  in- 
numerable, both  small  and  great  beasts."  (Ps. 
104:25).  Also  the  "sea-monsters,"  of  which  the 
Bible  speaks  in  the  original,  we  recognize  very 
distinctly.  Their  remains  are  yet  found  in  muse- 
um^s,  although  mostly  in  small  specimens.  They 
are  called  "Sauria,"  or  lizards  on  account  of  their 
shape,  but  you  must  imagine  giant  animals  from 
20  to  70  feet  in  length.  There  were  the  mighty 
"fish-sauria,"  with  their  four  enormous  fins  and 
sharp  teeth,  found  in  their  large  pointed  snouts, 
and  with  which  they  could  crush  the  ink-fish  and 
other  sea  animals,  whose  remains  we  find  in  their 
stomachs  to-day.  The  eyes  of  this  sea-monster 
are  especially  interesting,  for  these,  as  one  may 
yet  see  from  the  skeleton  at  the  present  day,  were 
enclosed  by  many  movable  bone-plates,  which 
made  it  possible  for  the  eyes  either  to  be  pressed 
together  to  a  small  size  or  to  be  enlarged  to  the 
size  of  a  plate.  This,  no  doubt,  served  a  twofold 
purpose;  on  the  one  hand  it  prevented  the  eyes 
of  the  animal  from  being  blinded  on  coming  to  the 
surface  of  the  water,  and  on  the  other  hand  to 
give  it  sight  in  the  depths  of  the  dark  ocean  in  or- 
der to  seize  its  prey.  But  there  were  also  other 
sea-animals  in    great   number,  for    instance,  the 


64  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

sea-anemones,  which,  while  grown  fast  to  the  bot- 
tom, carry  their  beautiful  heads  like  a  flower  upon 
a  long  slender  stem  from  10  to  12  feet  long.  Then 
the  well  known  ammonites,  which  are  found  in 
many  places,  the  smallest  ones  like  a  dime-piece, 
the  largest  of  a  hundred  pounds  weight,  as  large 
as  a  wagon-wheel.  Finally  the  ink-fish,  which,  on 
account  of  its  horn-like  snout,  the  country  people 
call  "thunder-wedge"  or  "devilsfinger." 

But  also  the  inhabitants  of  the  air,  the  birds, 
are  found,  for  the  first  time  in  these  layers  of 
earth.  When  the  birds  are  not  found  in  such 
abundance  as  the  sea-animals,  we  can  see  how  this 
harmonizes  with  the  Bible,  which  uses  the  expres- 
sion "creeping"  with  reference  to  the  sea-animals, 
but  not  with  reference  to  the  birds.  Besides  this, 
the  relative  scarcity  of  bird-fossils  is  explained 
when  we  consider,  that  the  sea-animals,  when 
they  perished,  remained  in  the  mud  by  the  thou- 
sands and  were  preserved  by  being  petrified,  while 
the  birds  remained  upon  the  earth  and  being  ex- 
posed to  the  air  would  decay,  so  that  their  trace 
was  lost.  Yet  there  are  also  traces  of  birds  as 
created  on  the  fifth  day,  similar  to  our  birds  at 
the  present  day,  and  also  some  which  belonged  to 
other  species  that  have  disappeared. 

iNow  let  us  hear  something  with  reference  to 
the  increase  of  the  sea-animals,  in  comparison 
with  the  inhabitants  of  the  air,  a  point  on  which 
the  Bible  lays  special  emphasis  in  the  22nd  verse 
of  the  creation  account.  It  is  surprising  how  this 
blessing  of  God  is  yet  manifest  in  regard  to  the 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  65 

water-animals.  While  the  birds  show  a  relatively 
slow  increase  and  lay  only  from  one  to  six  eggs, 
we  find  in  the  case  of  fishes  a  productive  power 
which  surpasses  even  the  productiveness  of  the 
vegetable  kingdoms  already  referred  to.  There 
have  been  found  in  a  single  herring  up  to  68,000 
eggs,  in  carps  from  200,000  to  342,000,  in  a  huso 
(a  fish  in  the  river  Wolga)  above  three  millions, 
and  in  a  cod  from  four  to  nine  millions.  Of 
course  of  these  eggs  millions  and  millions  perish 
from  various  causes:  storms,  water-birds,  etc. 
But  one  who  lives  near  the  ocean  may  convince 
himself  of  the  immense  number  of  sea-animals, 
which  are  in  the  water.  Thus,  for  instance,  at  the 
sea-port  of  Havre,  thirty  to  forty  fish-boats 
launch  out  into  the  ocean  every  day  of  the  year 
and  catch  within  a  relatively  small  area  an  im- 
mense quantity  of  prawn,  and  small  lobsters, 
which  are  eaten  along  the  entire  sea-coast,  also 
in  Rouen  and  Paris.  And  yet  they  do  not  de- 
crease. Again,  hundreds  of  large  ships  with  a 
fishing-crew  from  fifteen  to  twenty  thousand  sail 
annually  to  the  banks  of  Newfoundland  and  catch 
on  an  average  thirty  millions  of  cod,  and  still  this 
fish  is  always  found  there  in  the  same  quantity. 
The  Norwegians  alone,  when  the  herring-migra- 
tion, coming  from  the  north  pole,  takes  place 
along  their  coasts,  catch  in  a  few  weeks  three  hun- 
dred millions  and  often  a  great  deal  more,  so  that 
they  make  use  of  them  as  manure  for  their  fields. 
Hordes  of  sharks  and  whales  follow  these  columns 


66  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

and  eat  thousands  of  them,  so  that  they  become 
big  and  fat,  and  yet  in  spite  of  all  this,  one  can  not 
notice  the  least  decrease.  An  immense  quantity 
of  them  find  their  way  every  year  to  the  depths  of 
the  Atlantic  ocean,  where,  no  doubt,  they  serve  as 
food  for  the  larger  fish.  And  again  there  comes 
from  the  north  pole,  year  by  year,  this  inexhaust- 
ible stream  of  a  mighty  life.  It  has  been  asserted, 
that,  if  the  means  for  catching  and  transporting 
them  would  be  at  hand,  the  entire  human  family 
could  live  on  fish,  without  noticing  a  decrease. 
Thus  the  Word  of  God,  spoken  on  the  fifth  day  of 
creation,  is  still  being  fulfilled :  "Let  the  waters 
bring  forth  abundantly  the  moving  creature  that 
hath  life,"  and :  "Be  fruitful  and  multiply,  and  fill 
the  waters  in  the  seas." 


ANIMALS  ON  THE  DRY  LAND. 


"And  the  Evening  and  the  Morning  Were  the 
Fifth  Day.  And  God  Said,  Let  the  Earth 
Bring  Forth  the  Living  Creature  After  His 
Kind,  Cattle  and  Creeping  Thing,  and  Beast  of 
the  Earth  After  His  Kind,  and  it  Was  So.  And 
God  Made  the  Beast  of  the  Earth  After  His 
Kind,  and  Cattle  After  Their  Kind,  and  Every- 
thing That  Creepeth  Upon  the  Earth  After 
His  Kind;  and  God  Saiv  That  H  Was  Good." 

ONCE  more  the  earth  was  covered  with 
darkness  and  a  mighty  destructive  com- 
motion passed  over  it,  and  for  a  time,  the 
creative  power  of  God  rested.  But  when  on  the 
m.orning  of  the  sixth  day  the  light  again  poured 
over  the  earth,  when  innumerable  new  kinds  of 
plants  came  forth;  when  all  sorts  of  water-ani- 
mals began  to  move  in  the  oceans  and  innumer- 
able birds  to  fly  about  in  the  air — then  a  new 
wonder  was  performed :  neiv,  higher  kinds  of  ani- 
mals began  to  inhabit  the  earth.  To  us,  of  course, 
the  many  kinds  of  animals,  which  we  daily  see, 
are  no  longer  a  wonder,  as  is  the  case  with  many 
other  wonders  of  God !  A  horse  is  to  us  a  horse, 
and  a  dog  a  dog,  and  nothing  else.  But  should 
there  appear  for  the  first  time  some  strange  think- 
ing being  upon  the  earth,  a  being  created  by  God, 


68  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

to  him,  to  be  sure,  man  would  appear  the  most 
wonderful.  Man,  the  divine  image,  the  fallen 
king,  so  small  and  yet  so  great,  so  changeable 
and  yet  eternal,  so  insignificant  and  yet  so  im- 
portant. But  next  to  man,  the  greatest  wonder  to 
him  would  be  the  animal  world,  which  God  crea- 
ted on  the  sixth  day.  Such  a  visitor  would  ask: 
who  are  these  beings  that  move  about  with  such 
a  variety  of  form  and  shape?  Like  you,  they  are 
born  in  pain;  like  you,  they  eat  and  drink,  feel 
joy  and  sorrow.  They  seem  to  think  and  to  be 
possessed  of  will-power.  Like  you,  they  have  feel- 
ing and  memory;  they  love  and  hate.  They  look 
up  to  you  in  silence  and  yet  they  seem  to  speak. 
They  willingly  follow  you;  fear  death,  like  you, 
and  die,  like  you,  in  anguish  and  pain.  Indeed, 
there  is  something  mysterious  about  these  ani- 
mals. We  find  them  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  where 
everything  was  pure  and  happy.  God  will  re- 
quire the  blood  of  man  at  the  hand  of  every  beast, 
and  the  blood  of  beasts  at  the  hand  of  man  (Gen. 
9:5).  They  have  the  capacity  to  see  angels,  where 
the  eyes  of  men  are  holden  (Numbers  22:23), 
They  are  even  mentioned  in  connection  with  the 
invisible,  heavenly  world  (IL  Kings  6:17;  2:11; 
Rev.  19:11,  14).  They  are  a  part  of  the  "crea- 
ture" to  which  the  Apostle  refers  when  he  speaks 
of  the  earnest  expectation  of  the  creature  and  its 
final  delivery  from  the  bondage  of  corruption  into 
the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God  (Rom. 
8:19,  etc.).  And  has  God  not  made  use  of  the  an- 
imal world  in  order  that  the  people  of  the  Old 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  69 

Testament  covenant  should  know  the  distinction 
between  clean  and  unclean,  holy  and  unholy? 
(Lev.  11).  True,  we  learn  in  the  New  Testament 
that  every  creature  of  God  is  good,  but  it  is  never- 
theless remarkable,  that  even  here  Jesus  is  desig- 
nated as  the  "Lamb  of  God"  and  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  comes  down  in  the  form  of  a  "dove,"  while 
on  the  other  hand  we  read:  "For  without  are 
dogs."  (Rev.  22:15.  Comp,  Matth.  7:6).  Thus 
also  in  the  New  Testament  the  animal-world 
serves  as  a  divine  picture-book,  in  which  the  con- 
trast between  the  holy  and  the  unholy,  the  clean 
and  the  unclean  is  presented  to  our  view. 

"Everything  after  its  kind" — thus  God  crea- 
ted the  animals  on  the  sixth  day.  The  Bible, 
therefore,  knows  nothing  about  "Darwinism,"  so 
called  after  its  founder,  Darwin.  According  to 
his  theory  the  higher  animals  and  even  man,  in 
the  course  of  many  millions  of  years,  have  devel- 
oped from  the  lower  animals,  and  these  again  in 
the  same  way,  by  means  of  an  inherent  power 
have  come  out  of  a  "cell,"  i.  e.,  a  little  bubble.  No, 
as  the  plants,  so  also  the  animals  have  been  crea- 
ted entirely  distinct  from  each  other  and  complete 
as  to  their  kind.  True,  since  the  day  of  creation 
many  kinds  of  animals  and  plants  have  become 
extinct,  but  no  one  has  been  able  to  prove  that 
new  kinds  have  come  into  existence  since  the  cre- 
ation of  man.  Man  has  been  able  to  produce  only 
a  number  of  varieties  in  the  case  of  dogs,  flowers 
and  some  plants,  but  the  species  itself  remains  un- 


70  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

changeable.  Since  the  world  began  no  ox  has 
changed  into  a  horse,  and  the  old  idea  that  has 
again  been  brought  forth  in  the  last  century, 
though  in  different  form,  according  to  which  man 
is  descended  from  a  monkey-like  animal  which  in- 
habits the  interior  of  Africa,  (which,  in  an  un- 
conscious desire  after  perfection,  has  given  up  its 
animal  appearance  and  appropriated  to  itself  a 
language),  is  not  only  from  a  biblical  but  also 
from  a  purely  scientific  standpoint  considered  an 
unfounded  fancy  of  would-be-wise  men,  which  has 
thousands  of  facts  against  it. 

As  from  the  plants,  which  came  forth  on  the 
third  day,  and  from  the  fishes  and  birds,  which 
came  forth  on  the  fifth  day,  so  the  layers  in  the 
interior  of  the  earth  contain  from  the  four-footed 
animals,  created  on  the  sixth  day,  numberless,  and 
in  fact,  well  preserved  remnants,  and  the  reader 
need  only  visit  a  museum,  where  he  will  find  them 
in  abundance.  And  in  order  that  the  Bible  also 
here  m.ay  prove  itself  trustworthy,  because  it 
states  that  these  anim.als  were  created  on  the 
sixth  day,  the  remains  of  the  same  are  not  found 
in  the  older  layers  of  the  earth,  which  would  indi- 
cate that  they  had  been  created  at  the  same  time 
with  the  plants  and  water-animals,  but  for  the 
first  time  we  find  them  in  the  later,  the  chalk- 
layers,  which  cover  the  older  layers,  but  here  they 
are  found  in  great  abundance.  There  are  not 
found  petrified  skeletons  of  transition-formations, 
as  if,  according  to  the  Darwinian  theory  the  wa- 
ter-animals had  slowly    and    gradually    changed 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  71 

into  four-footed  animals,  crocodiles  into  oxen,  but 
they  appear  all  at  once,  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  them,  the  ancestors  of  our  elephants,  rhinoce- 
roses and  hippopotamuses,  the  giants  of  those 
days,  much  greater  and  more  powerful  in  their 
youthful  strength  than  they  are  at  present,  with 
jaw-teeth  as  large  as  a  fist,  and  front  teeth  as 
thick  as  the  trunks  of  small  trees,  and  from  ten  to 
twelve  feet  long,  and  a  skeleton  of  bones  put  to- 
gether like  rafters,  so  that  when  looking  at  them 
one  is  reminded  of  that  wonderful  description  of 
behemoth  in  the  book  of  Job,  ch.  40,  15-24. 

There  was,  for  instance,  the  "megatherium" 
or  "great  animal,"  nearly  twice  as  high  and  twice 
as  long  as  a  steer,  with  enormous  thick  bones, 
pilar-like  legs  and  claws  a  foot  long ;  covered  with 
a  hard  skin,  two  inches  thick  and  with  powerful 
chisel-like  teeth,  which  enabled  it  to  chew  trunks 
of  trees  like  soft  grass.  This  mighty  creature  of 
God  walked  slowly  through  the  forests  and, 
shielded  like  a  fortress,  feared  no  attack.  Through 
its  skin  neither  claw  nor  tooth  could  penetrate, 
and  neither  the  dash  of  a  lion  or  a  tiger  would 
have  caused  it  to  tremble.  With  a  single  stroke  of 
its  paw  it  could  have  crushed  any  of  the  animals 
of  prey  at  the  present  day.  Also  the  "Dinothe- 
rium"  or  "Fright-animial,"  of  which  you  may  see 
a  powerful  skull  with  teeth  in  the  museum  at 
Stuttgart,  God  created  on  the  sixth  day.  It  is 
shaped  like  a  hippopotamus,  but  much  larger,  hav- 
ing a  strong  snout  and  great  teeth,  which  are  bent 
downward,  and  with  which  it  was  enabled  to  hold 


72  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

itself  in  the  current  of  a  rushing  stream.  This 
animal,  too,  as  much  as  we  know,  lived  on  herbs 
and  water-plants.  There  were  also  at  that  time 
many  "mammoths,"  and  "mastodonts,"  two  spe- 
cies of  great  elephants.  The  last  named  was  cov- 
ered with  a  thick,  shaggy  fur,  having  enormous 
teeth  and  lived  towards  the  north  as  far  as  Sibe- 
ria, where,  at  the  present  time,  numerous  teeth  of 
this  animal  are  found,  which  constitute  a  large 
part  of  the  ivory  sold  by  merchants.  There  have 
been  found  such  animals  frozen  solid  in  the  ice  in 
the  polar  regions,  which  have  been  driven  there 
perhaps  at  the  time  of  the  great  flood.  They  are 
so  well  preserved  that  the  dogs  could  live  on  their 
flesh,  and  even  explorers  did  not  despise  eating 
such  meat  which  may  have  been  thousands  of 
years  old.  Besides  these  animals  just  mentioned 
there  roamed  about  through  the  forests  during 
the  time  of  the  sixth  day  of  creation  enormous 
lizards  up  to  seventy  feet  long,  and  taller  than  a 
steer ;  also  animals  with  scales  from  14  to  24  feet 
long,  covered  with  six  cornered  or  pointed  scales 
as  hard  as  steel.  Some  of  these  species  are  found 
yet  in  South  America,  of  course,  six  times  smaller. 
In  addition  to  these  there  were  numerous  smaller 
species  of  animals,  coming  down  even  to  the 
dragon  fly  and  the  spider,  which  are  found  yet  at 
the  present  day  nicely  embalmed  in  amber,  which 
itself  is  nothing  else  but  the  gradually  hardened 
pitch  of  the  pine  tree  of  those  days. 

Thus  the  animals  were  created,  which  still  at 
the  present  time  inhabit  the  earth  in  endless  va- 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  73 

riety.  Whatever  shall  become  of  them  upon  the 
new  earth,  we  know  not.  But  as  they  were  al- 
lowed to  walk  under  the  trees  of  the  first  para- 
dise, so  they  will  also  be  allowed  to  walk  under  the 
trees  of  the  second  paradise,  as  the  Scriptures 
clearly  indicate.  (Comp.  Is.  11).  The  conserva- 
tive spirit  of  the  Scriptures  does  not  allow  us  on 
the  one  hand  to  enter  upon  doubtful  speculations 
and  fantastic  paintings,  yet  on  the  other  hand  we 
must  not  portray  to  ourselves  the  life  to  come  so 
poor,  barren  and  meagre.  The  heaven  of  our  God 
is  not  a  mere  big  hall,  in  which  we  are  all  to  sit 
together,  but  a  glorious  world,  yea  many  worlds, 
which  are  all  filled  with  His  brightness  and  glory. 
Then  it  will  be  the  entire  universe,  and  the  mil- 
lions of  starry  worlds,  which  we  now  see  shining 
in  the  heavens,  are  only  a  small  part  of  the  great 
divine  creation — a  dominion,  in  which  there  is 
room  for  millions  of  creatures  of  all  kinds,  of 
whom  we  have  no  conception  and  presentiment 
here  upon  our  little  earth. 


THE   HUMAN   BODY. 


''And  God  Said,  Let  Us  Make  Man  in  Our  Image, 
After  Our  Likeness;  and  Let  Them  Have  Do- 
minion Over  the  Fish  of  the  Sea,  and  Over  the 
Fowl  of  the  Air,  and  Over  the  Cattle,  and 
Over  All  the  Earth,  and  Over  Every  Creeping 
Thing  that  Creepeth  Upon  the  Earth.  So  God 
Created  Man  in  His  Own  Image,  in  the  Image 
of  God  Created  He  Him;  Male  and  Female 
Created  He  Them.  And  God  Blessed  Them, 
and  God  Said  Unto  Them,  Be  Fruitful  and 
Multiply,  and  Replenish  the  Earth,  and  Sub- 
due it;  and  Have  Dominion  Over  the  Fish  of 
the  Sea,  and  Over  the  Fowl  of  the  Air,  and 
Over  Every  Living  Thing  that  Moveth  Upon 
the  Earth.  And  God  Said,  Behold,  I  Have 
Given  You  Every  Herb  Bearing  Seed,  Which 
is  Upon  the  Face  of  All  the  Earth,  and  Every 
Tree  Yielding  Seed;  to  You  it  Shall  be  for 
Meat.  And  to  Every  Beast  of  the  Earth,  and 
to  Every  Fowl  of  the  Air,  and  to  Everything 
that  Creepeth  Upon  the  Earth,  Wherein  There 
is  Life,  I  Have  Given  Every  Green  Herb  for 
Meat:  And  It  Was  So."    (Gen.  1,  26-30). 

THE  earth  was  now  completed  and  there  was 
glorious  life  everywhere,  but  yet  the  crea- 
tures were  looking  for  a  visible  ruler. 
Then  God  did  not  speak  merely  a  creative  word, 
but  the  Triune  God  held,  so  to  speak,  counsel  with 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  75 

himself,  and  this  resulted  in  a  great,  eternal  res- 
olution. "Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after 
our  likeness."  How  dignifying!  A  vice-regent 
upon  earth,  God-like,  his  image,  an  absolute  ruler 
over  all  creatures,  a  mediator  between  God  and 
the  creatures,  man  was  to  be!  And  now  what 
have  Satan  and  sin  made  out  of  him?  A  poor 
slave  of  his  lusts  and  desires,  his  body  languishing 
under  disease,  bowed  down  to  earth,  perspiring 
and  shedding  tears,  no  longer  controlling  the  en- 
tire creation,  but  living  in  constant  fear.  He 
fears  the  heat  of  the  sun  and  the  cold  air,  he  fears 
the  fire  and  the  water  and  the  animals  of  the  field, 
he  fears  life  and  fears  death,  and  his  entire  power 
and  knowledge  prove  helpless  against  the  grape- 
bug  and  the  potato  disease  or  against  the  invisible 
poisonous  germ.s  of  the  cholera,  which  give  him 
fearful  pain  and  deadly  disease.  How  is  the  king 
of  the  earth  fallen  and  his  glory  gone ! 

And  yet  you  may  behold  traces  of  his  dignity 
by  looking  at  his  bodily  form.  He  does  not  walk 
horizontally  with  his  head  toward  the  earth  like 
the  animals,  but  erect  with  his  head  upward,  only 
touching  the  earth  with  his  feet.  And  in  his  body 
he  unites  a  diversity  of  qualities.  While  in  the 
case  of  animals  one  is  known  by  its  swiftness, 
another  by  its  strength,  a  third  one  by  its  fine 
hearing  or  keen  sight,  in  no  single  one  are  these 
qualities  found  in  such  beautiful  harmony  as  is 
the  case  of  man.  The  properly  developed  human 
body  unites  them  all.  History  relates  of  exhibi- 
tions of  human  strength,  which,  if  one  considers 


76  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

the  weight  of  the  human  body,  surpasses  the 
strength  of  the  horse  and  the  ox,  yea  even  of  the 
lion.  The  swiftest  animals  have  already  been  out- 
run by  man.  The  Arab  of  the  desert  distinguishes 
on  the  clear  sky  of  the  Sahara  desert,  at  a  dis- 
tance of  nine  miles,  a  horse  or  a  camel,  where  a 
European  would  see  nothing  but  a  dark  spot. 
The  Tunguse  of  Siberia  sees  with  the  naked  eye 
the  four  moons  of  Jupiter.  Furthermore,  man  is 
not  covered  with  scales,  feathers  or  hair,  for 
these,  though  they  protect  the  animal  against  cold, 
dull  the  sensibilities  and  lessen  the  sense  of  touch, 
but  with  a  fine  skin,  which  is  very  susceptible  to 
the  least  impression.  And  what  animal  would  be 
able,  like  man,  to  endure  the  40  degrees  of  cold  in 
Siberia  as  well  as  the  42  degrees  of  heat  in  Af- 
rica? What  animal  could  live  in  the  regions  of 
eternal  snow  and  ice  as  well  as  in  the  glowing 
sand,  upon  the  summits  of  mountains  as  well  as 
three  thousand  feet  deep  in  the  earth,  like  the 
miners  at  Falun  in  Sweden? 

And  what  a  wonder  is  this  body  of  his !  The 
eye,  which,  according  to  its  need,  widens  and  con- 
tracts, adapts  itself  to  the  laws  of  the  telescope 
looking  into  the  distance,  as  well  as  to  the  micro- 
scope near  by,  is  already  in  itself  a  wonderful 
world  of  fine  nerves  and  muscles,  which  receive 
millions  of  rays  of  light  and  pictures  and  give  the 
soul  reliable  information  concerning  the  things 
in  the  outer  world.  Likewise  the  human  ear,  in 
which  there  are  found  43,000  wonderful  small 
little  staffs,  like  the  strings  of  a  harp,  which  ver- 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  77 

berate  at  every  tune  and  sound  and  through 
which  the  soul  receives  the  wonders  of  the  sound. 
But  above  all  the  greatest  of  all  wonders  is  speech. 
In  order  that  these  noble  senses  may  perform 
their  functions,  it  is  necessary  that  there  should 
be  nourishing  organs.  The  mouth,  throat  and 
stomach  receive  and  convert  within  a  few  hours 
suitable  food  into  blood,  so  that  the  bread  which 
a  few  hours  ago  lay  as  dead  matter  upon  your 
table,  has  become  now  a  part  of  yourself,  has 
changed  into  blood,  on  which  you  subsist,  and  into 
brain,  with  which  you  think.  And  the  blood,  this 
mysterious  liquid,  of  which  the  Bible  tells  us  that 
it  contains  the  life  or  the  soul,  is  now  taken  up 
by  the  heart,  this  wonderful  center  of  life,  and 
the  heart  pumps  this  life  juice  incessantly  by  day 
and  night,  whether  you  think  about  it  or  not, 
through  the  finest  arteries,  up  into  the  brain  and 
down  into  the  stomach,  into  the  tips  of  your  fing- 
ers and  toes,  and  nourishes  therewith  the  whole 
body.  If  this  heart  were  merely  a  mechanical 
contrivance  by  man,  made  out  of  steel  and  dia- 
mond, it  would  have  been  worn  out  and  incapable 
to  perform  its  function  long  ago.  For  it  beats 
seventy  times  in  a  minute,  in  a  day  100,800  times, 
and  in  a  year  36,792,000  times.  If  you  are  50 
years  old  and  a  healthy  man,  your  heart  has 
beaten,  without  a  pause,  1800  million  times  and 
feels  no  weariness !  So  likewise  the  lungs  breathe 
incessantly  and  untiringly  the  fresh  air  through 
thousands  of  cells  and  suck  it  up  like  a  sponge  the 
water  and  provide  the  blood  with  fresh  air  in  or- 


78  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

der  that  it  may  be  able  to  perform  its  function. 
They  also,  by  the  process  of  breathing,  remove  the 
impure  air  that  has  become  useless,  and  all  this  is 
done  whether  you  think  about  it  or  not. 

Besides  these  wonderful  organs  for  nourish- 
ment, circulation  of  the  blood  and  breathing,  the 
body  is  interwoven  by  a  fine  net-work  of  white 
threads,  all  of  which  unite  in  the  spinal  marrow 
or  brain.  These  are  the  nerves,  the  telegraph  and 
telephone  wires,  by  means  of  which  the  soul  is  in- 
formed of  what  is  going  on  in  the  body,  pain  or 
enjoyment,  warmth  or  cold.  And  all  these  dif- 
ferent activities  work  harmoniously  together. 
The  one  cannot  do  without  the  other.  The  nerves 
and  the  brain  need  a  constant  supply  of  blood,  and 
if  this  ceases  only  for  a  malf  minute,  or  a  few 
drops  of  it  are  spilled,  it  will  result  in  a  paraletic 
stroke  and  man  will  fall  to  the  ground.  Likewise 
the  heart  needs  the  assistance  of  the  nerves  for 
its  activity  and  must  be  nourished  by  the  stomach. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  lungs  and  their  functions. 
And  all  this  is  done,  not  in  a  manner  like  unto  our 
machinery  with  much  noise  and  bustle,  no,  but  so 
easily  and  gently  that  you  do  not  notice  it  your- 
self. It  is  the  breath  of  God  within  you  that 
moves  all  these  wonderful  forces  and  compels  to 
united  action,  what  we  call  life.  If  you  reflect 
upon  all  these  things,  you  must  cry  out  with 
David:  ''I  will  praise  Thee;  for  I  am  fearfully 
and  wonderfully  made!"    (Ps.  139:14). 

Moreover,  in  another  respect  our  body  must 
be  considered  a  wonderful  thing.    We  are  accus- 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  79 

tomed  to  look  upon  it  as  something  solid  and  un- 
changeable, but  we  are  mistaken.  Our  body  is 
something  in  the  hightest  degree  changeable, 
something  that  is  in  a  constant  state  of  dissolu- 
tion and  reconstruction.  That  it  constantly  needs 
food  in  order  to  sustain  itself,  you  know;  but 
from  the  fact  that  this  food  amounts  to  several 
pounds  daily,  while  the  body  increases  in  weight 
only  a  few  grains,  you  will  conclude  that  there  is 
a  continual  great  waste  of  matter.  For  instance, 
the  v/ater  evaporates  and  even  solid  substances,  as 
metal  gradually  though  very  slowly,  dissolve  when 
coming  in  contact  with  the  air.  In  this  way  our 
body  finds  itself  in  a  continual  process  of  disinte- 
gration and  evaporation.  This  even  affects  the 
bones,  for  it  has  been  discovered  that  also  these, 
though  in  the  center  of  the  body,  undergo  a  con- 
stant change,  continually  wasting  away,  and  by 
this  means  of  nourishment  are  formed  into  new 
ones.  Yea,  that  our  entire  body  is  made  new 
about  every  seven  years,  that  not  the  least  par- 
ticle of  the  former  remains.  A  man  of  forty-two 
years,  therefore,  would  have  changed  his  body 
completely  six  times,  and  yet  how  remarkable — 
his  form  remains,  his  appearance  in  the  main  will 
be  the  samie,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  changeable, 
there  remains  a  mysterious  unity  and  unchange- 
ableness.  Does  this  not  point  to  a  secret  divine 
power,  which  lies  here  at  the  bottom?  Yes,  be- 
hold, the  human  soul,  your  soul,  has  received  the 
pov/er  from  God  to  draw,  to  itself  by  day  and  by 
night,  whether  you  sleep  or  wake,  constantly  in- 


80 The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

numerable  little  parts  of  matter  in  order  that  it 
may  build  and  maintain  for  itself  a  body,  by 
means  of  which  it  comes  in  constant  contact  with 
the  world  outside.  And  not  only  this,  but  it  has 
also  power  to  create  for  itself  to  a  certain  degree 
a  picture  of  its  own  making.  Have  you  ever,  af- 
ter a  certain  interval  of  time,  again  seen  a  man, 
who,  during  that  time  had  given  himself  up  to  a 
life  of  vice,  fallen  away  from  God  and  gone  to 
ruin?  And  have  you  not  noticed  in  his  body,  in 
his  face,  that  he  is  on  the  down-grade,  though  he 
should  be  dressed  ever  so  handsomely,  washed 
and  combed?  And  on  the  other  hand  have  you 
ever  seen  the  face  of  a  man  expressing  a  benevo- 
lent disposition,  divine  peace,  though  he  did  not 
say  a  word  ?  Thus,  as  God  created  man  after  His 
own  image,  the  immortal  soul  shines  always  more 
or  less  through  this  transient  and  mortal  body. 
This  soul  is  yet  a  much  greater  wonder  than  the 
body  of  man,  and  about  it  we  will  now  speak. 


THE   HUMAN   SPIRIT. 


God  Created  Man  After  His  Image. 

THE  full  meaning  of  this  word  we  shall 
doubtless  not  know,  until  we  come  into  the 
bodies  of  our  resurrection,  glorious  like  the 
sun  and  strong  with  heavenly  power.  But  what 
dignity,  what  honor,  that  God  himself — Jehovah 
— should  reveal  himself  in  human  form ;  and  also, 
that  He  has  made  the  angels  in  our  likeness. 
This  we  are  not  to  understand  as  if  we  could 
judge  by  the  form  of  man  how  God  looks,  but  we 
are  to  understand  here  the  essential  powers  and 
attributes  of  the  human  soul,  as  well  as  the  posi- 
tion of  man  toward  the  rest  of  creation.  As  God 
rules  the  entire  universe,  thus  man  is  to  rule, 
through  God,  the  earth  and  all  creatures,  and  this 
he  does  in  a  certain  sense  even  after  his  fall.  Of 
course,  whom  he  rules  in  the  love  of  God  for  the 
sake  of  their  happiness,  are  no  longer  his  subjects 
in  filial  obedience,  but  it  goes  according  to  the 
Word  of  God  to  Noah :  "And  the  fear  of  you  and 
the  dread  of  you  shall  be  upon  every  beast  of  the 
earth."  (Gen.  9:2)  ;  and  instead  of  being  their 
God,  he  is,  alas !  too  often  their  devil.  He  has  yet 
great  power  nevertheless.  There  is  not  a  being  on 
earth,  who  could  call  him  to  account  saying :  why 
are  you  doing  this  ?    Plants  and  animals  are  given 


82  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

over  into  his  hands.  He  can  take  up  a  plant  at 
one  place  and  let  it  grow  at  another;  and  if  this 
appears  to  us  a  matter  of  little  importance,  be- 
cause we  are  used  to  it,  let  us  remember  that  no 
animal  can  do  it.  Likewise,  he  cannot  only  kill 
an  animal,  but  he  can  bring  it  up  tame  and  im- 
prove it.  And  were  he  to  take  care  of  them,  as  it 
becomes  a  king,  instead  of  considering  them  his 
slaves,  which  he  may  torment  at  his  pleasure,  he 
could  now  already  on  his  part  satisfy  many  an 
earnest  expectation  of  the  creature.  Thus  man  is 
the  only  creature  of  God  upon  the  earth,  who  has 
power  over  the  fire,  this  element  of  the  wrath  of 
God.  Though  many  performances  of  animals,  for 
instance,  the  building  of  houses  by  the  beaver, 
seem  to  require  more  sense,  than  when  man  in  the 
primitive  ages  attempted  to  preserve  the  fire  of  a 
tree  when  struck  by  lightning  in  adding  more 
wood,  yet  no  animal,  not  even  the  monkey,  would 
have  conceived  such  an  idea. 

But  still  more  than  in  his  control  over  nature, 
we  have  to  look  for  the  essential  powers  of  the 
human  mind,  wherein  his  "God-likeness"  appears. 
What  else  is  human  art  and  science,  the  waging  of 
wars  and  founding  of  kingdoms,  the  building  of 
cities  and  making  of  laws,  than  a  continual  reve- 
lation and  manifestation  of  an  immortal,  divine 
soul,  which  can  find  no  peace,  till  it  rests  in  the 
eternal,  infinite  God  himself?  Why  is  it  not  sat- 
isfied and  content  like  the  ox  with  a  filled  manger? 
The  reason  is :  it  is  God's  image. 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  83 

A  part  of  this  "God-likeness"  is  our  con- 
science. As  nothing  evil  can  stand  before  God,  so 
also  nothing  before  the  divine  in  man,  which  inex- 
orably judges  and  punishes  his  deeds,  words  and 
thoughts.  How  often  has  it  happened  that  a  mur- 
derer after  ten  and  twenty  years  has  voluntarily 
offered  himself  to  the  courts  and  asked  for  pun- 
ishment, in  order  that  at  last  that  fearful,  unbear- 
able judge  within  him,  may  come  to  silence.  Or 
look  at  the  rich  man  who  by  bad  and  dishonorable 
trickeries,  has  acquired  a  great  fortune.  Well 
may  he  possess  a  magnificent  house  and  sit  at  a 
sumptuous  table;  well  may  his  friends  call  him  a 
rich,  clever,  honorable  and  esteemed  man,  which 
he  himself  is  almost  inclined  to  believe.  But 
when  his  friends  are  gone  and  the  lights  are  ex- 
tinguished, then  he  rolls  about  on  his  magnificent 
bed,  restless  and  anxious,  his  mind  occupied  with 
new  speculations,  only  that  he  may  not  hear  that 
small,  still  voice,  which  in  the  stillness  of  the 
night  incessantly  whispers:  "You  are  a  thief." 
Think  also  of  your  memory.  What  a  power  over 
time  and  space  does  it  not  possess,  a  part  of  God's 
omnipresence!  Things  long  past,  which  the  soul 
at  one  time  has  taken  hold  of,  and  now,  after  the 
floods  of  pain  or  joy  have  passed,  after  it  has 
thought,  spoken,  done  and  experienced  things  in- 
numerable, perhaps  an  entire  life  gone  by,  it  has 
yet  the  power  to  bring  forth  at  its  will,  out  of  the 
ocean  of  the  past,  this  or  that  which  has  appar- 
ently vanished  long  ago.    And  the  man  70  or  80 


84  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

years  of  age  sees  yet  the  room  in  which  he  played 
when  a  little  child  and  hears  yet  the  voice  of  the 
mother,  who  died  long  ago.  This  is  a  mighty 
power  of  the  human  soul.  From  observations, 
which  one  may  make  of  men  high  up  in  years,  in 
sickness,  in  insanity  and  at  the  dymg  hour,  this 
power  is  much  greater  and  more  complete  than 
we  commonly  imagine.  One  must  assume  that  the 
human  soul  really  does  not  forget  anything,  but 
that  this  or  that  experience  is  only  for  a  time,  as 
it  were,  covered  up,  and  that  there  will  be  a  time 
when  every  experience,  every  deed  and  every 
word,  yea,  every  thought  out  of  the  depths  will 
come  to  life  again,  living,  true  and  perfect,  in  or- 
der that  it  (the  soul)  might  be  judged  thereby. 

And  now  the  greatest  wonder  of  man — 
speech!  The  animals,  too,  have  a  kind  of  lan- 
guage and  are  enabled  by  means  of  the  voice  to 
express  joy  and  pain  in  an  impressive  manner; 
but  they  have  not  the  power  of  speech  and  never 
has  the  most  intelligent  dog  invented  a  single 
monosyllabic  word  in  order  to  call  his  master. 
And  why  not?  Because  he  has  not  the  mind,  that 
understands  and  grasps  men  and  things  as  to 
their  real  nature.  But  as  we  read  about  God  at 
the  time  of  the  creation :  "God  said,"  "he  called" ; 
Adam,  too,  "gave  names  to  all  cattle,"  as  a  be- 
ginning of  his  work  on  earth.  This  means  a  great 
deal.  Have  you  never  thought  about  this  won- 
derful capacity  of  the  human  soul  to  give  expres- 
sion by  means  of  speech  to  its  inward  being,  yea, 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  85 

so  to  speak,  to  breathe  itself  forth?  With  your 
lips  and  tongue  you  put  a  small  portion  of  air 
into  vibration:  the  air — or  sound — waves  are 
caught  up  by  the  ear  of  your  neighbor,  and  im- 
mediately he  knows  your  deepest  thoughts !  With 
this  apparently  insignificant  act,  with  this  little 
air  put  into  motion  you  can  accomplish  that  which 
is  good  or  bad;  by  means  of  spaech  create  anger, 
give  comfort,  lead  immortal  souls  either  to  God 
or  to  the  devil.  By  means  of  speech,  kingdoms 
are  daily  founded  and  destroyed,  cities  are  built, 
states  and  laws  established,  art  and  science  fos- 
tered. And  how  exceedingly  simple  are  also  here 
the  means,  by  which  so  great  things  are  accom- 
plished! Five  vowels  and  about  twenty  conson- 
ants have  been  sufficient  for  the  last  six  thousand 
years  for  the  most  civilized  nations  of  the  earth, 
and  will  be  sufficient  for  them  as  long  as  the  earth 
stands,  to  express  everything  what  the  human 
heart  thinks,  feels,  meditates  and  discovers.  In 
these  twenty-five  signs  are  hidden  all  the  books 
and  writings  that  ever  have  been  made,  all  lan- 
guages and  dialects,  which  mankind  ever  has 
spoken  or  yet  will  speak.  Man  can  invent  many 
things,  but  he  cannot  invent  a  new  letter,  no  sixth 
vowel  to  the  five  already  existing,  which  God  has 
given  him.  Is  this  not  wonderful?  And  have  we 
not  in  this  a  presentiment  of  the  fact  why  the 
eternal  Son  of  God  is  called  in  the  Scriptures 
"Word  of  God"?  But  do  you  wish  to  understand 
something  of  the  power,  which  is  contained  in  a 
human  word,  remember  only  the  sentence:  "For 


86  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

by  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  justified,  and  by  thy 
words  thou  shalt  be  condemned."  (Matth.  12 :37) . 
Or  what  said  Noah:  "Cursed  be  Canaan;  a  ser- 
vant of  servants  shall  he  be  unto  his  brethren." 
(Gen.  9:25),  and  with  this  saying  the  prophetic 
man  of  God  sealed  the  destiny  of  an  entire  conti- 
nent for  thousands  of  years  to  come,  for  history 
proves  it:  Africa  always  and  is  yet  the  land  of 
slavery.  And  when  Israel  had  blessed  Jacob,  no 
prayers  and  tears  could  alter  what  had  been  said. 
The  word  was  spoken  and  Jacob  remained 
blessed.  How  great  is  the  power  of  the  word 
spoken  in  the  name  of  God.  Therefore  it  is  a 
lamentable  sign  of  our  times,  that  speech  among 
us  has  become  so  degenerate.  The  old  Greeks  and 
Romans  laid  much  stress  on  the  proper  use  of  lan- 
guage. Socrates  would  say:  "To  speak  incor- 
rectly is  damaging  to  the  soul,"  or  "Speak  in  order 
that  I  may  see  you."  Therefore  it  was  considered 
as  the  main  object  of  an  education  to  teach  men 
how  to  speak  in  a  few  words,  precise  and  true. 
And  at  the  present  day  what  a  flood  of  meaning- 
less, hollow  and  empty  words  are  constantly 
poured  forth  into  the  world,  spoken  and  written, 
so  that  it  is  said  depreciatingly:  "They  are  but 
words!"    This  is  much  to  be  regretted! 

Thanks  be  to  God,  that  the  Word  of  God  has 
more  power,  validity  and  permanency  than  such 
empty  human  speech,  and  that  even  Satan  is  not 
allowed  to  interfere.  The  Word  of  God  is  eternal 
and  cannot  pass  away.     And  having  once  said: 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  87 

"Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  like- 
ness :  and  let  them  have  dominion  over  the  whole 
earth,"  the  complete  fulfillment  cf  this  word  may 
be  interrupted  by  sin,  but  not  discontinued.  Re- 
deemed through  Jesus  Christ,  man  as  renewed  in 
the  image  of  God,  will  at  one  time  rule  over  the 
whole  earth,  yea  even  judge  the  angels,  (I.  Cor. 
6:31),  and  his  word  will  again  have  a  creative 
and  judicial  power.  But  its  highest  and  noblest 
aim  the  word  of  man,  as  completed  in  Christ,  will 
consist  in  this,  that  by  means  of  the  same,  he  will 
give  praise  and  honor  and  glory  to  God  in  all  eter- 
nity, for  He  has  created  all  things,  and  for  His 
pleasure  they  are  and  were  created.  (Rev.  4:11). 
"And  I  saw  heaven  new  and  earth  new;  for  the 
first  heaven  and  the  first  earth  are  gone."  Rev. 
21:1).  These  words  of  creation,  which  we  have 
considered  hitherto,  are  immortal;  the  light  and 
the  air,  the  mountain,  the  plant  and  the  animal, 
these  are  eternal  thoughts  of  a  God  who  will  never 
give  up  His  work  as  a  failure.  Upon  the  new 
earth,  we  will  be  allowed  to  behold  this  new  crea- 
tion in  still  greater  splendor  and  glory  and  inherit 
all  things.  (Rev.  21:7).  "Behold,  I  make  all 
things  new."    (Rev.  21:5). 

It  is  indeed  a  great  pity  that  even  many 
Christians  are  so  slow  to  believe  the  promises  of 
God  to  create  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth. 
That  birds  and  trees,  hills  and  rivers  are  here,  no 
one  but  a  fool  would  undertake  to  deny.  But  that 
the  sam.e  God,  who  once  created  them,  will  make 


88  The  First  Page  of  the  Bible. 

a  new  earth  on  which  there  will  be  rivers  of  crys- 
tal and  hills  of  light,  trees  of  life  and  a  city  of 
wondrous  glory,  in  which  we  shall  live  in  our 
risen,  immortal,  glorified  and  incorruptible  bodies, 
clothed  in  white,  with  hands  to  feel  and  feet  to 
walk,  and  a  mouth  to  eat  and  drink,  sing  and 
praise, — this  many  will  not  believe;  and  in  spite 
of  the  bodily  resurrection  of  Christ  and  the  prom- 
ises of  the  Word,  they  regard  heaven  as  a  hazy, 
indefinite  and  undefined  existence  somewhere, 
without  much  idea  as  to  where.  That  this  present 
world  should  have  created  itself  is  a  piece  of  in- 
comprehensible nonsense.  But  if  God  once  crea- 
ted it,  why  not  re-create  it?  Is  his  hand  short- 
ened? Can  the  Creator  no  longer  create?  Or 
shall  the  world  of  heavenly  bliss,  in  which  dwells 
no  evil  thing  at  all,  be  less  real  and  substantial 
than  this  present  world  so  full  of  sin?  0  fools 
and  slow  of  heart  to  believe  all  that  God  has 
promised  in  His  Word. 

There  is  also  a  wonderful  correspondence  be- 
tween the  last  page  of  the  Bible  and  the  first. 
Thus  the  Word  proves  itself  to  be  one  throughout, 
a  glorious  revelation  of  the  counsels  of  God  with 
respect  to  mankind.  "In  the  beginning  God  crea- 
ted heaven  and  earth."  At  the  end  he  will  create 
a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth.  The  first  earth 
He  watered  with  four  rivers ;  on  the  new  earth  a 
river  of  crystal  will  flow  from  the  temple.  In  the 
first  Paradise  there  was  a  tree  of  life ;  in  the  sec- 
ond there  will  be  such  trees.    On  the  first  earth 


The  First  Page  of  the  Bible.  89 

there  were  mountains;  on  the  second  the  Lord's 
house  shall  rise  on  a  mountain,  great  and  exceed- 
ing high. 

But  glorious  also  will  be  the  differences  be- 
tween the  first  creation  and  the  second.  Sun  and 
moon  light  the  first,  and  in  Paradise  itself  day- 
alternated  with  night.  But  on  the  new  earth 
there  will  be  no  night ;  they  will  need  neither  light 
of  lamp  nor  light  of  sun ;  for  the  Lord  God  shall 
give  them  light.  (Rev.  22:5).  Adam  and  Eve 
were  naked,  in  token  of  their  innocence;  on  the 
new  earth  the  saints  will  walk,  clothed  in  white, 
in  token  of  their  righteousness.  In  the  first  Par- 
adise man  dwelt  in  a  garden;  in  the  second  his 
home  will  be  in  the  glorious  palaces  of  God.  In 
the  first  he  was  forbidden  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  the 
knowledge  of  good  and  evil;  in  the  second  there 
is  no  such  prohibition.  In  the  first  there  was  pos- 
sible a  "No" ;  in  the  second  it  will  all  be  "YEA 
and  AMEN."  "And  death  shall  be  no  more; 
neither  shall  there  be  murmuring,  nor  crying,  nor 
pain,  any  more ;  the  first  things  are  passed  away. 
And  he  that  sitteth  on  the  throne  said:  Behold  I 
make  all  things  new." 

May  God  through  the  blood  of  Christ  fit  us 
for  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light.    Amen. 


BS651 .B56 

The  first  page  of  the  Bible  ... 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00056  0864 


